See how NLSIU Alumni's "Serving the Shramiks" provides on-the-ground support to Migrants [Images]

As the COVID crisis unfolds and millions of migrant workers continue to leave urban India for their villages and towns, alumni from the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru have stepped in to provide on-the-ground support to the passengers departing from 9 railway stations in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and the NCR, apart from bus terminals in multiple cities..In partnership with the Akshaya Patra Foundation, the Serving the Shramiks initiative has provided more than 1,15,000 food kits along with over 2,00,000 bottles of water and ORS over the past two weeks. .Call to aid: NLSIU alumni launch an initiative to provide food, water to 1 lakh Migrant Workers boarding Shramik trains.As the programme continues with new Shramik and Special trains being inducted on the orders of the Supreme Court, over 100 trains and buses have been serviced..Serving the Shramiks brings together former NLSIU students from the Bar, corporate India and law firms in Mumbai and Delhi. .The steering team includes Poornima Sampath, Rabindra Jhunjhunwala, Yash Ashar and Sameera Khanna Vasudeva. Funds have been raised from several sources across the corporate and legal fraternities. .Sumir Chadha from WestBridge Capital, Ajay Bahl of AZB, Ramesh Ramanathan of the Jana Foundation, Kerman Khambata, Sanaya Nariman and Craftasman Automation were early generous contributors, allowing the fund raise to be closed within the first 48 hours itself. .Senior Advocates Rakesh Dwivedi, Abhishek Singhvi, Mukul Rohatgi, C.S.Vaidyanathan and lawyers across India – Shobhita Mani, Manita Doshi, Latha Nair, Anuradha RV, Saikrishna Rajagopal, Pramod Rao, Rahul Gulati, Anil Kasturi, Avinash Umapathy and Swathi Sukumar are among hundreds who have readily offered support..Nikhil Chandra of MyLaw who has been active in organizing volunteers and distributing food packets personally across the stations of Delhi-NCR says, .“Families carry their belongings on their heads, without even having a free hand to hold what we were offering them – we had to keep evolving our logistics plans to accommodate all situations.”.Rabindra Jhunjhunwala, Partner at Khaitan and Co says, .“Serving the Shramiks has worked closely with Indian Railways to streamline processes for distribution of food kits to passengers going to many destinations including Howrah, Gorakhpur, Bhubaneshwar, Varanasi, Gadag, Dharbanga, Patna and Dimapur. It is a small contribution from us in the legal community at a difficult time.”.The programme has benefited from the generosity of free stocks being provided by many – cake from Farokh Irani of Honeybell Cakes and Cookies, bread from Britannia and masks from Thyrocare, and also from the selfless contributions of Civil Defence, Railway personnel and police forces on the ground..If readers have details of any migrants who require transportation and travel support, please contact Serving the Shramiks at servingtheshramiks@gmail.com.To know more about Serving the Shramiks, click the following links:FacebookInstagramLinkedInTwitter.Also contact.For Serving the ShramiksRabindra Jhunjhunwala: +91 9820423435, rabindra.jhunjhunwala@khaitanco.comPoornima Sampath: +91 9810773171, poornima.sampath@gmail.comYash Ashar: +91 9820315652, yashashar@gmail.com.For Akshaya Patra FoundationSundeep Talwar: +91 9716090000, sundeep.talwar@akshayapatra.org