#17 Nishant Pandey - Helping migrant workers during the pandemic

• Feeding front line workers in NYC, Boston and the Bay area during the COVID-19 crisis

• Supporting small businesses and local kitchens in the US at the same time. 

• Working tirelessly to help millions of displaced migrant workers in India. 

These are some of the things the team at American India Foundation(AIF), a nonprofit American organization involved in accelerating social and economic change in India are doing during this pandemic.

Tune in to listen to Nishant Pandey, CEO of American India Foundation, talk about the work AIF is doing during the crisis and the biggest challenges migrant workers face. Most importantly, he shares ways in which you can help.

Follow AIF's work on social media:
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Follow Nishant on Twitter:
@nishant_AIF

Transcript

Anu

Hello, and welcome to Heroes of New York.

Nishant

Hi Anu, good morning. Thank you so much for inviting me. And thank you so much for doing what you're doing. This podcast is amazing. I've been following it. And it's a great way to communicate all the good work that people are doing in the corporate context. So thank you so much. 

Anu 

And thank you so much. It's an honor to have you here. I know that you and your team at American India foundation have been working round the clock during this pandemic. And looking back over the past few months. What are your reflections on what you experienced Like?

Nishant 

Oh, it's been an amazing experience. It's an unprecedented crisis. AIF course, has responded to many humanitarian situations before I have personally led many humanitarian responses before but nothing like COVID-19. It's unprecedented in the sense that it has affected the global community everywhere. So this is probably the first time in the history of humankind that all of us have the same For years and anxieties and uncertainties about the future of our society, you know, for our families and friends, and all of us are very eagerly waiting for a solution to be found. So that's one way in which COVID has been different the other way, which of course, affects the team much more and I'm so proud of the heroic effort that our team has displayed in the last three to four months is simply the operational constraint when you have shelter in place, when you have locked downs. When you have restrictions on mobility, and transport, how do you reach out to people in need, and serve them with whatever they need at that moment.

And I think we have done a great job. Our teams have done a great job on the ground, in kind of navigating some of these operational constraints. So it's been a huge learning experience, but it's also kind of strengthened my belief in all of us and humankind and how people are coming despite their own concerns and fears about the well being have their families and friends, people are still thinking about others and being really generous in supporting others. So I'm very, very proud of all our supporters, all our donors in the way they have come forward to help others. 

Anu

Indeed, absolutely, we can see a lot of people raising to the challenge of helping others. And it's very heartwarming to hear that. Can you tell us a little bit more about the work that you have done in the US and in India? 

Nishant 

Right. I don't know how many of your listeners actually know about the American India foundation. Ai was set up about 20 years back in the aftermath of a big earthquake in Gujarat, in India, and as a platform for Americans to reach out people in need and to support the relief and rehabilitation effort in India. And since then, it has evolved into a collective philanthropic platform for Americans to support women, children and youth in India. Poverty is a multi dimensional phenomena. So we work on health, education and livelihoods. But also we do it in a way that we build bridges between the US and India, the two largest democracies of the world. We have our longest running program is the Fellowship Program, which we have been running for the last 20 years now, where we send young bright professionals from the US to serve social enterprises and nonprofits in India, for a period of 10 months, around 500 fellows have graduated from this program. The whole idea is to develop a constituency of future leaders who believe in the idea of strong partnership between the US and India it's very important for us in India to have very strong People to People partnership. The government's are of course partnering with each other private sector activity in the US India corridor is very, very strong, but the people to people relationship still has a long way to go and that's what we are trying to contribute The mission of the IRS. So when COVID outbreak happened, our focus in the US was to support the frontline health workers, the heroes who have been at the frontline of fighting this pandemic. And we have provided more than 20,000 freshly cooked meals to frontline health workers across the US so that they have one less thing to worry about during work or after work. And working with the umbrella of the world central kitchen. We have partnered with local restaurants in different geographies, to provide meals to hospitals. For example, in New York since this podcast is focused on heroes of New York, in New York, we have served multiple hospitals, Bronx, VA St. John's Hospital in Queens, flushing hospital, hassenfeld children's hospitals, and the New York Presbyterian Hospital. And we have done that in partnerships with local kitchens, because remember, COVID is also impacted small Businesses a lot. So how do you deliver your response in ways that you're also supporting local businesses. So we work with local kitchens, local restaurants in New York, in the Bay Area in Chicago and Boston, to provide these meals as our gratitude to all the amazing, amazing work that the health workers in these hospitals have been doing. Also, remember, when New York was the hotspot, there were also a lot of medical professionals who came from outside beyond to support the system at that point of time, and they didn't have the same infrastructure and the family support to feed themselves. So that's where the freshly cooked meats that we have provided and many other organizations have provided have come in very, very handy. And I must also mention that I'm so proud of the board that we have in AI because they stepped up to this challenge, and actually funded this whole effort to their own contributions. In India, we were again focused on supporting frontline health workers with life saving equipments and with BP kits and things like that, but very quickly we realize that in India because of the lockdown, the health crisis became a humanitarian crisis. A lot of vulnerable families, women headed households, persons with disabilities, elderly people living alone and migrant communities needed urgent support. So we have provided food and what we call as hygiene kits to these vulnerable communities so that they can continue to feed themselves, their families, but also protect themselves against infection risk. And thanks to our generous donors across the US, we have so far so 418,000 people across India in our COVID work, as the more medium to long term impacts have already become more and more evident. We are now looking at the impact it is having on children's education on Earth. Don't listen, girls health issues and on youth, especially migrant workers who have lost their employment. So we are now kind of focusing on how do you use technology to continue to provide learning opportunities to children. Remember, schools have been closed for now four months. And unlike some of us whose children's in all those children have kind of access to digital learning. The fact is that a large majority almost 80 85% of children do not have access to digital learning. And therefore it is very important that they continue to learn so that when schools reopen, they are not lagging behind. So continuty and retention of children is very important remediation of learning is very important, or it has also very stopped and have away demonstrated the digital divide that exists and despite all the buzz that we hear, the fact is that a large majority Have people do not have access to digital technology? And so how do we make sure that the new normal that we reimagine now is more equitable in terms of access to digital technology, and that's what we're trying to do in our work on education. Similarly, we know from past humanitarian disasters, which led to widespread deprivation, that the tendency of families to marry of their young girls goes up, so families are more likely to marry off their girls at the age of 1415. I don't know how many of your listeners know but India unfortunately contributes 25% of global newborn deaths every year. That translates to about 775,000 babies every year that died in 28 days of birth. There are several reasons behind it. But one of the biggest reasons is prematurity and low birth weight, which is caused by the fact that there are a lot of girls who get mad At the age of 14 1516. So we are trying to make sure that cobit is not leading to reversal of gains that we have made in delaying the age of marriage of these girls. So these are some of the less kind of spoken about impacts of covid. And we are trying to make sure that we are bridging the gap when it comes to education on these matters, and also what we can do to support these communities. The third big big challenge that COVID has presented is in terms of the employment and livelihoods of a large number of people. In the US 40 million people have lost their jobs in India 100 and 40 million people have lost their livelihoods. These are all migrant workers mainly. And a lot of sectors like tourism like travel have been hugely, hugely impacted. So the future that emerges on the other side of this crisis will require a very different set of skills for people to be Become employable. And that's why we are focused on rescaling and upskilling of many of these young people who have lost jobs and employment because of covid crisis. So that's been our kind of response so far, and the plan kind of going for.

Anu 

Well, thank you, Nishant. That's a wealth of information right there. You mentioned that 140 million people, migrant workers in India have been affected by this. That's a huge number. And given the length and breadth of the country, it must have been a challenge for your team as well, to reach out to them to be able to help them and given that a lot of workplaces are going removed. It will add to your challenge. How is your team rising up to this challenge and how are they facing it?

Nishant

You're absolutely right. I know in India, there are 100 and 40 million people who engage in what is called as distress seasonal migration. So they are forced to migrate for six to seven months a year in search of livelihoods because they live in geography. fees where there is only one agricultural season. So even if you have a piece of land, you cannot do much and you are forced to migrate. And the entire family migrates, unlike various other forms of migration. So the good part or something that kind of really helped us is the fact that we've been working with many of these communities for the last 1415 years, especially looking at children or education of children of these migrant workers through a program called Learning and migration plan program. So we had existing relationships with many of these communities. Having said that the challenge that they are facing right now is a very different kind of challenge and the scale and complexity is also very different. As I said, what we are focused on is not just on children's education, but also the livelihood support for many of these communities. We are developing a plan and working with various partners to provide employment support to 1 million street vendors in India, there are about 10 million street vendors in India, almost all of them are migrant workers, many of them are familiar and this population constitutes about 15% of total urban employment in India. So it's a huge challenge. And they pretty much kind of lost their livelihoods overnight because of the lockdown. So what we are trying to do is to aggregate them and then support them through working capital so that they can restart their businesses as the economy opens and the lockdown is lifted, but also use this opportunity, as I was saying the beginning to kind of leapfrog them from the current cash based transactions that they engage in to more digital cashless payments. Also, remember the cash based transactions that they do also involves infection risk right now, when discussing with FinTech companies and digital payments companies to help us in this process. So there are lots of Things that we are working on. It has been challenging, especially in the early days of COVID. So in India, for example, the lockdown was announced on March 24. And so for the first two, three weeks, there were very strict restrictions on movement. And although the government said they will issue permits for essential workers and nonprofit workers come under that category, but it took two to three weeks for people to start getting those permits. So the first two to three weeks were very challenging, but thankfully, we had relationship pre existing relationship with a large number of gram panchayats, which are like local self government bodies. And so working with companies or corporate partners and with gram panchayats, despite the movement restrictions, we were able to deliver ration kits and hygiene kits to a large number of people across India, with about 2000 gram panchayats. And after that, teams on the ground started getting permits and since then, we've been to crown, our own staff have been on the crown. So people across pretty much 1718 states of India.

Anu

This is very impressive Nishant. And I'm sure our listeners are very happy to know this because not everyone is aware of the plight of migrant workers the challenges they face. And it's really a very interesting piece of information that you're sharing here. So as you said, you're moving into the midterm and long term phases of COVID. The next phases here, and looking forward, what is your hope for the future?

Nishant

First of all, as I mentioned, I'm really thankful we are only able to do what we do because of the generosity and commitment of our supporters. So despite the fact that every one of us is facing these challenges, code related challenges, a lot of people have stepped up and have contributed to a mission so that we can help other people in need. And as I said, that is what gives me hope, especially with unprecedented access to To technology and information, a lot of people are now aware of what is happening in various parts of the world. And a lot of people are actually taking action to make sure that as cliched as it sounds, we are all in it together. And the only way to come out of this crisis on the other side successfully is if we work together if we support each other. And that's the sentiment. That's the spirit that a lot of people have shown. You are doing great work by launching this podcast heroes of New York. I have listened to some of your podcasts. Amazing, amazing work. So a lot of organizations, a lot of AI is not unique in that sense, are doing amazing work. And a lot of people are coming forward to support each other. And that's what really gives me hope that if we all work together, we can solve many problems.

Anu 

Thank you, Nishant. That's very inspiring. I think we all depend on each other to move forward. How can our listeners help Business handled or contribute to this noble costs? 

Nishant

Yeah, no, that's very important. I think for me, the first thing is just create awareness and education on what is happening, what different organizations are doing. I think what is very important is context is empathy, right? While we're all concerned about our own health, health and well being over for families and friends, it's also very important to think of other people. And empathy only comes with greater awareness and education. And I think you're doing a great job in spreading education and awareness about what's going on what different organizations are doing. The second piece, obviously, is to contribute both financially but also in terms of time and intellect. For example, we have a fundraiser coming up in New York on September 23. You can go to our website, www dot IRS dot o RG and contribute financially to that fundraiser. The focus of our fundraiser is As I said, on providing schooling and entrepreneurship support to youth who have lost employment and jobs because of COVID. So your money will go a long way in helping young people, underprivileged young people survive through this crisis. Also, a lot of people beyond, of course, financial contribution, have skills that organizations would love to leverage. So find out what your local charities are engaged in, what kind of skill sets they need. And if it matches your skill sets and your passion and your motivation, you can go and volunteer. And then the last thing obviously, is just spread the word. There are still a lot of people who don't know what is going on. So if you're listening to this podcast, spread the word around, talk to them about COVID and the impact it is having on children and girls and women and youth. And I think greater awareness will bring greater collaboration. So I think these are some concrete things that your listeners can do. 

Anu 

Thank you. That was very useful. We covered so much in today's conversation from serving healthcare workers to helping migrant workers and the challenges that children of these migrant workers face the digital divide the challenge adolescent girls face and you've shed light on a lot of these issues. Definitely there's a crisis. But there's also hope, when people like you and the team at AIF are working round the clock to help them. I'm sure our listeners would also like to contribute and volunteer, and I hope they do so. So please log into AI F dot o RG, and look for the fundraising details. And thank you so much, Nishant. It was a true honor and a pleasure to have you on the show.

Nishant  

Thank you so much. I know once again, congratulations on starting this podcast and for doing what you're doing. I also want to use this opportunity to thank all our frontline health workers in the US in India. I want to thank all organizations and individuals who have come on your podcast and I've shared the stories absolutely absolutely amazing, inspirational work that everyone is doing. I also want to thank all our supporters and donors who have really enabled all the work that we do. I mean, without their support, we will not be able to do what we do. So thank you, everyone. And as I said, I'm very hopeful that we will help each other to overcome this crisis. Thank you. 

Anu

Thank you so much.