Anganwadi worker on mission to feed migrants walking home

On April 24, Ameena Begum selected to have a good time her daughter’s birthday in a novel means. Nearly a month into the lockdown, Ameena, a 44-year-old resident of Mupkal village in Telangana’s Nizamabad district, cooked a meal massive sufficient to feed a number of households. Together together with her 4 kids, Azharuddin, Mazharuddin, Tahseen and Heena — whose birthday it was — Ameena purchased groceries as properly. And then, the anganwadi employee who earns round ₹10,500 a month, distributed the ration to poor households and fed staff who have been journeying residence on foot through the lockdown.

Ameena Begum, lives near National Highway 44 that results in Nagpur. Her oldest son, Azharuddin, runs a hen store began by her now deceased husband, whereas 22-year-old Heena is present process a instructor’s coaching course. During the holy month of Ramzan, her residence grew to become a stopover for drained and hungry migrants.

“They were all migrant labourers coming from Hyderabad, about 200 km away, on foot and going to their native places in Maharashtra. Their children were crying as they had not eaten anything for the past two days,” Ameena mentioned. “I told them to wait for some time, so that I could cook some rice and curry for them.”

That was just the start. Ameena made it a mission to serve the migrants strolling on the freeway, and her kids assisted her. She used her financial savings of about ₹2,500, and put in cash from her month-to-month wage — reduce by 10% to ₹9,500. Heena, who has a part-time job of tailoring and embroidery, pitched ₹20,000 and Azharuddin promised to offer her ₹500 a day.

“Initially, it started with about 100 people, but it went up to 300 every day. The daily expenditure went up from ₹2,500 to ₹6,000 per day,” she mentioned. Ameena obtained assist from sudden quarters — one Krishna Murthy from Guntur despatched her ₹25,000; one other in Choutapalli village gave her 200 kg rice and 15 kg crimson gram. Farmers from neighbouring villages equipped fruit. “An owner of a private bus company gave financial assistance and sent four buses to transport the labourers with due police permissions,” she mentioned.

Ameena wakes up at three am each day and after prayers begins to cook dinner. By 6 am, she has cooked rice, khichdi, curry, greens and typically even biryani. The serving begins at 6am and continues until 10pm, she mentioned.

Now, Ameena has began transporting the meals to neighbouring villages, the place migrant staff are both staying or stopping over.