Social workers help Telugu Basti residents in Bhubaneswar survive lockdown

A group of social workers has taken up the task of giving meal two times a day to the residents of Telugu Basti, from Andhra Pradesh, living in Bhubaneswar.

Sameer Vardhan, one of the residents of Telugu Basti, told : "About 400 people live in the Telugu Basti. However, since the lockdown was imposed half of the people have left for their native village. We are the only ones who are still here."

"Since the lockdown was imposed we lost our means to earn and faced a shortage of food. However, a group of social workers come here daily to give us meal two times a day. Had they not been here we would have starved to death," he added.

Umesh Khandelwal, one of the social workers, told : "For past 1.5 months we have been visiting this cluster with food. We want to ensure that no one goes hungry."

He further said, "Though half of the Basti's population have left we don't want the other half to leave. After all who will take their place when the lockdown is lifted?"

( With inputs from ANI )