INDIA. Mumbai, Maharashtra. In May 2020, when the Bollywood actor, Sonu Sood, was distributing food with his friend Neeti Goel, he came to know that migrant workers were left with no choice but to walk back home as all means of transport had been suspended during lockdown. He gained the required permissions and arranged transport within 48 hours for their safe return home. His efforts have continued since.
Sadly, Indian migrant workers faced multiple hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic: food shortage, financial instability, and severe health. Sood has not only helped the migrants reach their homes within India, but also repatriated thousands of Indian stranded overseas, and offered his luxury Juhu hotel for the accommodation of medical staff who were assisting with essential healthcare services.
The actor recently sent a tractor to Nageswara Rao, a farmer in Andhra Pradesh. As Rao couldn’t afford oxen, he was forced to take his daughters’ help. Moved by their plight, Sood sent them a tractor. ”Let the girls focus on their education”, Sood tweeted.
Sood has since offered people jobs, took in orphans, and sent a man buffaloes to support his income.
The work is not over yet. The actor now aims at providing jobs to thousands of unemployed migrant workers. For this purpose, he launched the Pravasi Rojgar app with job opportunities from over 500 reputed companies related to healthcare, automobile, e-commerce, construction, and engineering. It will aid businesses in searching, screening, and recruiting skilled workers for specific job needs. This initiative by the engineer turned actor will hopefully help millions of jobless workers to find a steady source of income.
Sood’s philosophy is simple: “Food, clothes and a roof overhead, these are the three things that can never be shifted to the virtual world. What I am doing is totally out of love. I am blessed to receive all the blessings that people are showering on me,” he said on The Kapil Sharma Show.
