Community kitchen in Bhiwandi struggles to provide food to 6,000 labourers

Around 6,000 migrant labourers and daily wage workers in Bhiwandi went hungry on Wednesday as the community kitchen in Bhiwandi’s Padma Nagar, where they had been

Around 6,000 migrant labourers and daily wage workers in Bhiwandi went hungry on Wednesday as the community kitchen in Bhiwandi’s Padma Nagar, where they had been having their meals, ran out of food grains.

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Bhiwandi, a powerloom town, is 30km away from Mumbai, and has 6 lakh migrant labourers.

The lockdown has affected the funds of various social organisations, who have stopped food parcels at many places.

“Earlier, around 80 social organisations had been providing food parcels to labourers and daily wagers daily in Bhiwandi. After the second lockdown, some of them stopped distribution and so more labourers come for meals to the community kitchen. Although the state government started community kitchens, they are not able to feed so many labourers,” said Sudhir Sonawane, social worker, Bhiwandi.

Santosh Shetty, local corporator of Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal Corporation, said they have appealed to the government to provide more food grains.

“The supplies for meals are given daily taking into account the number of people to be fed. However, with fewer social organisations providing food, the number of labourers coming to the community kitchen is increasing each day,” he said.

“We count the number of people to be fed a day before, but we cannot refuse if more turn up,” said Shetty.

Some labourers had only leftover dal on Wednesday. “We hardly get one proper meal a day. It is an everyday struggle to get food,” said Ramesh Gaud, 34, a labourer from Uttar Pradesh who works in a power mill in Bhiwandi.