About 100 families whose income depended on students who lived in hostels on the NIT Durgapur premises have been on the brink of penury since the students went home because of the pandemic.

Mostly contractual workers in the canteens, they would do jobs like cooking or helping in the kitchen. Their employers stopped payment the day their work stopped.

The National Institute of Technology (NIT), Durgapur, had asked students to vacate the hostels in March 2020 as a precaution against Covid.

The institute’s alumni raised Rs 5.75 lakh over the past two months and distributed it to 98 people last week.

Debajyoti Saha, who served food in the hall IX canteen and earn Rs 9,500 on an average before the pandemic, tried several odd jobs, but in vain.

“I had to quit a job as a security guard because the agency suspended payment. A factory where I tried to work was shut down because of poor business. I don’t have resources to pay for the tuition of my son who is in Class X and am struggling to afford the medical expenses of my mother,’’ said Saha, 48, who had been working at the hall IX canteen since 2004.

Saha’s colleague from hall IX, Raj Kumar Ghosh, tried to survive the crisis by working as a ticket collector on private buses and as a helper to a mason, but did not succeed.

“Since masonry cannot be learnt overnight, I used to carry the bricks and worked as a help. That work soon came to an end. Then I took up the job of a ticket collector on private buses that operate between Durgapur and Burdwan. But as the services were stalled with the renewed surge of cases, I lost the job,” said Ghosh, 43.

Nilesh Mallick, who had graduated from the institute in 2011 and stayed as a boarder at hall IX, said when the alumni found out about the plight of the canteen workers, they decided to do extend help.

“As we stayed away from home, they took care of us. So, once my batchmates got to know of their plight, they started the drive to take care of those who used to take care of us,’’ Mallick told Metro.

He works at a tech farm in Pune and is currently working from his home in Durgapur.

A campaign called Sahojatri (Co-travellers) was launched on Facebook to raise funds.

“Rs 5,000 was given to each of the 98 canteen workers last week. We have not been able to reach three others. The amount will be given for two more months,’’ said Mallick.