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Noida girl donates savings to help three migrants fly back home
Noida:
Noida:
A 12-year-old city girl has donated more than Rs 48,000 to help a family of three migrants stuck in Delhi go back to their native place in Jharkhand.
The girl, Niharika Dwivedi, is a resident of a high-rise in Sector 50 and a class 8 student of a private school.
According to her parents, she had been deeply affected by the plight of migrants for the past few weeks.
“The footage of a toddler trying to wake up his dead mother on the railway platform was just one of the few videos that had Niharika anxious about the migrant workers. She was willing to contribute in some manner. We are proud of her for helping out in any manner whatsoever,” said Surabhi Dwivedi, the girl’s mother.
Niharika has earned accolades from Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren for her noble gesture. According to a statement from the CM’s office, Soren appreciated the gesture and said he was grateful to the girl for her sensitivity to the needs of others and wished her a bright future.
To reach out to the migrant family, Niharika’s parents helped her get in touch with a non-government organisation (NGO).
“In the time of Covid-19 pandemic, there are so many people out there who need help. After my parents contacted the NGO, we got to know about a family of three migrants, including a young child, who were stuck at a shelter home in Delhi’s Yusuf Sarai during the lockdown. One of them is even suffering from cancer. They wanted to go back to their hometown in Jharkhand. So, we got them air tickets to go back home,” said Niharika.
An avid dancer, Niharika had Rs 48,530 in her ‘piggy bank’ which she decided to donate for helping the migrants leave Delhi on Sunday.
“A big chunk of the amount was given by her grandparents or relatives that she had been saving for the past few years. The rest of the money she had won in dance competitions,” said the mother.
The mother further said that the migrants, who worked as daily wager, lived in the Yusuf Sarai area before moving into the shelter home. They had also sold part of their property in Jharkhand for the cancer treatment last year, she added.
Niharika hopes to help out further in whatever way she can and wants to make her career in civil services.
In April this year, Noida-based young golfer Arjun Bhati, who have won the junior world championship in 2018 and 2019, had donated Rs 4.3 lakh to the PM Cares fund set up by PM Narendra Modi to deal with the Covid-19 crisis. Interestingly, the 15-year-old golfer raised the amount by selling his 102 trophies which he had won in the past several years.
