“Where Do They Really Belong?”: Mumbai’s Karan Taparia pens a book on migrant labourers

As the nation slowly inches towards normalcy amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it is hard to forget the humanitarian crisis that had accompanied the health emergency back in March. With the nation suddenly under lockdown, lakhs of migrants were left stranded with no financial security, their livelihoods disrupted. And so began the mass exodus of migrants from one part of the country to another, with thousands taking the tedious journey on foot. Penning down the painful stories, a Mumbai-based school student, Karan Taparia, has released a book on his first-hand account of helping stranded migrants in the country called- ‘Where do they really belong?’. The Bombay International School boy had started an initiative called Kushal Bharat - a non-profit platform to support pandemic-affected families, a week into the nationwide lockdown. Through the venture he had focused on empowering them to start their own small business ventures, helping them set up micro-businesses like food-stalls, stitching work, grocery stalls, dairy farming etc. Now, as his crowd-funding venture continues to help migrants for over 6 months, Karan Taparia has decided to share their stories with the public, chronicling the lives of his beneficiaries. Read: Hardship Faced By Migrant Labourers During Lockdown Theme Of Many Durga Puja Committees Read: Coronavirus LIVE Updates On his inspiration to start Kushal Bharat, Taparia writes in the book – “like so many such initiatives, it came from a place of wanting to help one person. The global pandemic has had paralyzing effects on various spheres, but witnessing the tragic effects of the lockdown on one of my students, at an NGO where I used to teach, struck a chord and inspired me to make a difference in any way possible; that’s when I started Kushal Bharat." Taparia has also dwelled into a deeper understanding of the entire migrant ecosystem, putting together the migrant worker population of India and how the reported numbers may be grossly understated. The author has also penned down some possible solutions to tackle the problems migrant workers face in India and the ways to improve their lives in the long run, stressing on the need to spur job creation and entrepreneurship at the grass-root level. Read: EU Agency Launches Probe After Reports Of Migrant Pushbacks Read: Suspected Migrant Smuggler Dies While Evading Greek Police

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“Where Do They Really Belong?”: Mumbai’s Karan Taparia pens a book on migrant labourers

Penning down the painful stories, a Mumbai-based school student, Karan Taparia, has released a book on his first-hand account of helping stranded migrants.

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