Law grads raise funds to charter Mumbai-Ranchi flight for migrants

MUMBAI: Alumni of the National Law School, Bengaluru, raised enough funds in less than half a day to lease an Air Asia A320 aircraft and fly 180 migrant labourers from Mumbai to Ranchi on Thursday. This will be the first time ever in the history of Indian aviation that a group of private individuals has planned to evacuate stranded migrants by a flight.
“We have a commitment from the Jharkhand government they will take care of the migrants once they reach Ranchi.Tomorrow (Wednesday) we shall be coordinating with the Maharashtra government to get the migrants on board the flight,” said a member of the alumni requesting anonymity. Funds have been put together by former students across batches. Migrant labourers were identified through various NGO networks.
Shyel Trehan from the batch of 2000 at the law school said her batchmates were just discussing a way to help migrants. They first thought of chartering a bus to take them from Mumbai to Ranchi, but soon found the cost per person for the journey was just marginally lower than that for a flight. One of her 2000 batchmates, Shuva Mandal, who works with the Tata group as its legal head, suggested a flight may be a better option as more people can be fitted.
“The whole idea and its execution is a joint effort, helped by Tata group, the airline and Priya Sharma, research scholar, social sciences, IIT-Bombay,” said Trehaan. They chartered an Air Asia flight filled to capacity with 180 passengers on board. They have raised Rs 11 lakh via crowd-funding so far.
The alumni have been doing various relief work in different states during this two-month lockdown period. “Movement of migrants is an issue. The cost of a flight ticket is the same as what the labourers are paying to go back by bus. So we decided to send them back by flight, as flights resumed from Monday,” said the member.
Around 45 migrant labourers had been booked on a regular Wednesday flight from Mumbai to Delhi and then to Ranchi, which got cancelled. “We thought why leave others behind and decided to charter a flight which will fly directly to Ranchi. Of course, the cost is being borne entirely by us, including the charter charges,” said the member.
“With all the money that is being spent by various people, all the migrants could have been safely evacuated by air during the lockdown period. Remember Spice Jet had even offered to fly them free. What is happening today (migrants going on foot) is criminal,” said the member.
The alumni’s says this is “a very small effort given the scale of the problem”.
Another member said, “We remembered the philosophy taught by our law school director Madhav Menon —to be agents of social change.”