Migrant workers: Home guard's virus awareness class now viral

: With migrant

workers hitting the streets en masse in various places violating lockdown, a video of a Keralite home guard educating anxious labourers about the seriouness of coronavirus situation has gone viral on the social media.

In the brief video, the elderly home guard in uniform was seen talking, consoling and creating awareness on the virus outbreak and the aftermath situation in and outside the country to the other-state workers in a rural labour camp in this north Kerala district.

Karunakaran, an ex-serviceman-turned home guard attached to Meppayur police station here, was the one who had won the heart of netizens through his exemplary effort.

 

No wonder, the district police chief, Ernakulam district collector and many others have praised the guard and the Civil Police Officer who had recorded the video and put it on social media.

Karunakaran has been visiting labour camps, where migrant workers from northern states are staying, to make them aware of the lockdown and restrictions on movement besides governments commitment to supply food items and other necessities for them.

I was acting as per instructions received from Circle Inspector Anoop to visit the labour camps as part of Janamaitri policing. I was only narrating and communicating with them about COVID-19 and the lock-out situation. I also communicated the government assurance on supply of food and materials, he said.

The friendly communication in pure Hindi by Karunakaran made all the difference in influencing the north Indian workers.

As the presentation and the style of interaction by the home guard enthused Ashraf, a Civil Police Officer who accompanied Karunakaran, he recorded it and put the video on the social media.

A Srinivas, Kozhikode (Rural) SP, who was all- praise for Karunakaran, said he was a mascot for communicating with migrant labourers.

"Put in 30 years in the Army in Bhopal and other places, he has been working with us as a home guard for about a decade. We have posted the video of Karunakaran in our facebook page, he said.