Jesuit Resource and Response Hub: Networking in action

Jesuits across South Asia have shown considerable commitment in reaching out to the distressed people across various locations. They have been actively involved in providing food support, shelter, financial aid, masks, sanitizers, psycho-social support, etc

Although Jesuit Provinces and Communities have been reaching out independently and collectively, the pandemichas emphasised the need to set up a crisis response mechanism at the JCSA level. Considering the global nature of the pandemic, there has been a realisation that interventions at multiple levels are required to tackle the impact. As a response to the felt need, on 13 April 2020, the President of South Asia announced the setting up of JRH with the Conference Development Office (CDO) as the lead in collaboration with the Core and Advisory Committees including ISI-Delhi, JESA, JAAI and others.

Since the Jesuits of South Asia have been actively and proactively responding to the crisis and reaching out to the people in distress, JRH anchored the role of consolidating all the relief work undertaken across the Conference. This was also a response to the mandate from the Fr. General to gather information on Jesuit initiatives and relief provisions. It has helped JRH to present the cumulative efforts of the Jesuits across the Conference at the national and international platforms. This has also given a South Asian/Regional identity to the work done in the global Jesuit context.

#V4MIGRANTS: The Campaign for Migrants

Global pandemic COVID-19 has devastated millions of lives and livelihoods across the world. The lockdown imposed by the governments to check the spread of virus brought misery and despair to people at large, especially the poor and migrant labours. In India, lakhs of migrant workers in the unorganised sector and daily wage earners lost their livelihoods. Many of them, who have been living and working hundreds of kilometres away from their native villages, defying the government’s orders rushed to reach the safety and dignity of their homes— cycling, stuffed in crowded trucks, and even walking hundreds of kilometers. With the stark realities of hunger and homelessness resulting from the loss of livelihood due to the pandemic and lockdown, the poor in the cities and in the villages of the country have been staring at their life as if no return.

#V4MIGRANTS, the online campaign for migrants, has been the highlight of the JRH initiatives since its inception. It was initiated in response to the distressing situations since the lockdown. Media have been abuzz about migrant workers’ plight—many of them dying on their way home, due to hunger, thirst and sheer exhaustion, and accidents on highways.

While immediate relief measures were undertaken at the ground level, JRH undertook a series of initiatives targeted to reach out to the migrants through network and collaboration at multiple levels. The #V4MIGRANTS campaign focused primarily on macro level intervention advocating for policy changes that would address the rights of the migrant workers. The campaign has a direct reach of about more than 18,000 persons across 31 countries.

Webinar Series

A series of webinars on migrant issues were organised by JRH bringing on board renowned social activists and eminent academics to discuss the issues pertinent to the migrants. Social activists like Harsh Mander, Nikhil Dey, Jean Dreze and academicians such as Shyam Sundar of XLRI discussed themes on Migrants as the Battered Citizens, the Big Question about their future in cities and their home states, and also the impact of the draconian measures of various states to suspend labour laws and sacrifice labour welfare in the name of economic revival. The latest episode of the webinar had the theme, “Labour law and Governance change in India: A decent work perspective” with RamapriyaGopalakrishnan, (Labour Lawyer, and ILO Consultant), RadhikaKapoor (Fellow, ICRIER), Christine Nathan, Ex-ILO ACTRAV official; Member of the Working Committee, Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS); Member, ICMC – Asia Pacific, as panellists.The webinar series served as a powerful medium to highlight the plight of the migrants before a global audience. While more than 1000 people attended each of the series from across the globe, 4794 subscribed to the Youtube videos related to the migrant campaign.

Information Dissemination

JRH relayed a series of information on relief measures of the central and state governments, shared about helplines and details of other organisations involved in relief work, details of special trains, etc. to support the Jesuits and others involved in reaching out the migrants. It has also initiated an online publication called ‘The Muse’ with the tagline ‘Be Absorbed’. Apart from the webinar series, mass appeal letters were initiated to the Karnataka Chief Minister persuading him to permit special trains for migrants from the state. JRH has initiated fundraising efforts for migrants through appeal letters, migrant campaign, etc. It has also been providing handholding support to the migrant helpdesk initiative at Bagaicha Social Centre, Ranchi.

Way Forward

JRH is currently in an evolutionary phase. Future plans to take it forward will materialize at the JSCA level after due consultations with Jesuits and its collaborators. Networking along with the possibility to critique and draw out lessons will be an important role JRH could play in the coming days. A study on the current situation of migrants, post-lock down has been initiated with the central zone Migration Desk as a collaborative venture.