Salman Khan To Financially Support 25,000 Daily Wage WorkersFrom The Film Industry Amid Lockdown
This was informed by the Federation of Western Indian Cine Employees(FWICE). According to FWICE president BN Tiwari, Salman via his Being Human Foundation reached out to theirorganisation to help the workers.
"Salman's Being Human Foundation has come forward tohelp daily wage workers. They called us three days ago. We have about 5 lakhworkers out of which 25,000 are in dire need of financial help. Being HumanFoundation said they will take care of these workers on their own. They haveasked for account details of these 25,000 workers as they want to ensure thatmoney reaches them directly," Mr Tiwari said in a statement.
"The remaining 4,75,000 workers can survive for about amonth. We already have huge ration packets for all the workers butunfortunately due to lockdown they are not able to come here to collect it. Weare thinking of ways how to reach out to them," he added.
Mr Tiwari said FWICE has reached out to several actors andfilmmakers to make a contribution. "We have written letters and also sent messagesto various people in the film industry to come forward and help the workers butwe haven't received any response from them. Producer Mahaveer Jain has offeredto provide help in terms of food and essential items."
Various other film making bodies have also come forward tohelp the nedy in the film industry. Earlier in the week, filmmakers and actors,including Karan Johar, Taapsee Pannu, Ayushmann Khurrana, Kiara Advani, RakulPreet Singh, Sidharth Malhotra and Nitesh Tiwari pledged their support to a newinitiative aimed at supporting the daily wage earners.
The initiative, I Stand With Humanity, started byorganisations – the International Association for Human Values, the Art ofLiving Foundation and the Indian Film and TV Industry, will provide families ofdaily wage workers with 10 days of essential food supplies.
On March 18, the Producers Guild of India announced thatthey have set up a relief fund for daily wage earners impacted by the shutdownof film, television and web productions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Their decision came after many filmmakers, including SudhirMishra, Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap, raised concerns over theimpact of shutdown on the daily wage workers.
