Miriam Koshy speaks about the migrant crisis during the lockdown and forming the Change On Ground Foundation.
Miriam Koshy first came to Goa in 2000 to do a PGDBM course at GIM, Ribandar and left in 2002 when she got a placement in Dubai. She returned in August 2004 to settle down with her classmate and husband, Jack Sukhija and spent the next 14 years managing Panjim Inn and Gallery Gitanjali with him and the family. In 2018, she finally decided to answer her calling to make time for her own art practice.
Miriam speaks on forming COVID Outreach Goa and the source of inspiration behind it. “At the onset of Covid 19 in March, migrant workers stood stranded between state lines. The pandemic heightened their vulnerability to entrenched neglect, compelling me to create a space prioritizing their needs in our CSO, Covid Outreach Goa to channel citizen volunteer efforts with State and professional partnerships, both local and national.”
“Our progress and the immense potential for change moves me till date to bridge systemic gaps that informal workers face with the formation of Change on Ground Foundation (COG).”
Like most people Miriam had been watching the impact of the pandemic and the resulting lockdown across the world and India. Miriam goes on to talk about the response that she has received to her when deciding to form the COG. “When I came across the first SOS call, I felt compelled to respond and shared the urgency of the situation with friends who responded immediately and from there on it has been a heart-warming groundswell of support, in kind and in person. As I dealt with each new challenge and spoke about it, there would come from somewhere or the other a response from the community – both immediate, pan India and even across the globe.” The overwhelming response received to her SOS call, supported her confidence to take up each task at hand and prepare for the ones that lay ahead. “The team formed quite organically. Restaurateurs, techpreneurs, DJs, architects, counsellors, writers, lawyers, artists, and students all rolled up their sleeves to get things done. Right from packing, inventory management, data collection, data entry, distribution, surveys, tele-calling follow-ups, shelter patrolling, booking buses and taxis for stranded workers to reach stations – pretty much everything. We also had individuals sitting at home (many senior citizens) making bags for us to repackage rations. It became a truly citizens’ movement and an ‘Operation Heartstrings’. Eventually, the people from the communities with whom we served came on board as volunteers”
Miriam and her team were witness to the gradual escalation in levels of anguish, anger and a growing sense of hopelessness, manifesting in suicidal thoughts. This was borne, not only out of the lack of basics, but heightened by desperate calls from home pleading with them to return to family and farm. These very families back home have had to mortgage whatever little they have to money lenders in order to feed their primary breadwinners stranded in other states without access to adequate and regular rations.
Miriam adds, “It increasingly became evident to us that an intervention was required to help them in their hour of mental crisis. For this, we reached out to Caritas Goa, a charitable trust – to put together a team of trained mental health counsellors. Many of the migrants began coming out voluntarily to pour their hearts out. Some of them came out the second time to talk to the counsellors. We ended up conducting counselling sessions for 51 migrant labourers in clusters that we identified as the most vulnerable ones.”
At the same time, Miriam and her team continued to support them each step of the way – be it from scheduled ration distribution, to helping them register themselves for the Shramik trains, to alerting them when their time to travel came, to helping those left out, to supplementing food at and outside shelters / holding areas, to even stepping in to ensure that they got food while on the train or buses back to their districts.
Miriam speaks on the future plans of COG and its plans to continue supporting the migrant population within and outside Goa. “Change on Ground unites volunteers and experts from many disciplines to drive lasting change. While we worked with industry and Government to organize food, shelter, and travel over the summer, we realized the struggles faced by migrant workers exceed informal sources of livelihood. Underlying barriers of literacy of rights, education and healthcare are endemic in the underdevelopment of rural areas.”
“To this end, we aim to articulate the formalisation of informal workers with evidence for sustained legislative action to protect labour rights and ethical reforms on multiple fronts of work-related practices,” emphasises Miriam.
The COG plans to use their four fold strategy of a) Access, b) Awareness, c) Advocacy and d) Association. Overall, COG creates a live network to hear the pulse of migrant workers in every region.
Miriam concludes with her message to the average citizen who wants to contribute to the cause. “We need to build a sustained collaborative ecosystem through partnership with social sector organisations, Government agencies and citizens. A lot of our work, especially with respect to surveys and awareness drives has been done via tele-calling, ensuring continuous worker participation and engagement .We need urban volunteers with skills to maintain systems and relationships with informal worker communities. Everyone has some skills that organisations like ours can work with to build back better”
