This Kerala home guard is helping explain COVID-19 to migrant labourers in Hindi
On Monday evening, Karunakaran K is on his way to a camp of migrant labourers in Kozhukkallur, Kozhikode. He is accompanying a police officer to distribute rations to the workers to help them out during the COVID-19 lockdown. Kozhukkallur village officer Mini is also with them.
A few days ago, another such trip that Karunakaran made to a migrant labourers camp was caught on camera and since then he has been getting a lot of attention. In the video he can be seen talking to 20 odd men at the camp in fluent Hindi, asking about their needs, and telling them all about coronavirus and the lockdown.
Karunakaran, a namesake of Kerala’s former Chief Minister, is a home guard. Has been one for 10 years, he tells TNM in a telephonic conversation. Before that, he served in the army. The viral video has given him more-than-15 minutes of fame, and even a call from actor Manju Warrier to appreciate his actions.
“We have been talking to the labourers for days, it’s still going on. I must have gone to 20 camps already. It was at one of these camps that Janamaithri police officer Ashraf took a video of me talking in Hindi to a few labourers,” Karunakaran says in slightly accented Malayalam.
He has been away from his home in Perambra, Kozhikode, for 22 long years, serving in the army. He has been all over the country. “You cannot work in the army without learning Hindi,” he says. It’s not just Hindi but he learnt Tamil and Bengali too.
In the video shot by Ashraf, which was also shared by Ernakulam collector S Suhas, Karunakaran, unaware of the camera filming him, switches to Hindi easily as the workers try to speak in broken Malayalam. Do you have “khaana”, “peena” and “kapda” – food, drinks and clothes, he asks them. They nod. They want to know how long the lockdown will continue. Karunakaran tells them. He goes on to ask them about coronavirus – do they know what that is. No, they shake their heads. So he tells them. He quotes the Prime Minister who had said that people should stay wherever they are.
“If you have any issues, talk to me or any other policeman. If you get sick, the government will take care of you,” Karunakaran tells the men, who listen intently to every word.
It is under the instruction of Vadakara rural Superintendent of Police Srinivas A that Karunakaran began going to the camps. “The SP had given instructions to station house officers and they in turn asked the home guards to help too.”
After seeing his work, Srinivas has made Karunakaran a mascot of guest workers in Kozhikode Rural. More home guards have also been deployed for the work.
The state of migrant labourers in Kerala became a subject of discussion after hundreds of them had stepped out on the street in Kottayam’s Paippad during the lockdown. They demanded that they be allowed to go back home. While there were reports of it being a conspiracy, more steps have since been taken to ensure the welfare of the thousands of labourers spread across the state.