A recent Facebook post from a Delhi university teacher carried this account: “A school principal friend told me she had a bunch of face masks stitched and would I know where they might be used. I put this information out on a relief network and immediately got a request from someone working with the poor near Turkman Gate. They needed face masks desperately. The question was how to get the masks across to the relief workers… I searched through my phone book and found the number of a university student who had taken urgently needed diabetes medication across to a friend. This young lady’s name is Anushka and she is an undergraduate who studies at Delhi University. Anushka sets out early from home every morning—sometimes as early as 4 am—to distribute food, rations and medicines all over the city…. Every day. On a scooty. That evening, I met her outside my residential complex to give her the face masks. It was late, almost 9:30 pm. I asked her how long she had been out. ‘Since 3:30 am,’ she said…. I asked Anushka when she ate last. Her answer was what I thought it would be. ‘In the morning,’ she said. She is not much older than those I teach. I try to tell her to please not be out so late. She smiles from behind her mask, that ‘Yeah, sure’ kind of smile that young people often give you… I am overwhelmed by her selflessness. I say a prayer for her protection and safety, and I thank God for her courage.”
Courage is at a premium in these destructive and scary times, but across India, hundreds of individuals and citizen groups are risking their own lives in relief efforts, whether distributing food to stranded migrants or helping senior citizens obtain life-saving medicines. Some, like the Akshaya Patra Foundation, are well-known social organisations committed to providing food to those in need, but other individuals, like Anushka, have been so moved by the plight of migrants and the poor, that it has inspired them to rise above their own requirements. Like Asif Khan in Jaipur who is doing amazing work in providing food packets to homeless, destitute and migrant workers. As he told India Legal: “On the eve of the Janata curfew, I went to an ATM to withdraw money and saw some hapless people sitting on a footpath. With all restaurants and dhabas closed, I wondered how they would survive.” Back home, he discussed it with his mother, Nafisa Khan, who pledged to do whatever they could. The next day, she made 100 packets of pulao, which were distributed among the migrants and poor.
When a friend, Aroob Abdul Aziz, a woman entrepreneur, heard about this, she decided to join in. Aroob started a WhatsApp group called Jazba (passion) and more people turned good Samaritans. Till last week, Jazba distributed food, rations, medicines, and even animal food, to more than 1.5 lakh people. The group has set up 25 kitchens and ten ration centres. As Asif says: “Coronavirus has taught us love for humanity. I hope to continue this even after the pandemic has disappeared.”
That is the same sentiment that inspired the Bhopal-based Jan Sampark Samuh, a conglomeration of public-spirited volunteers which includes journalists, teachers, artists and students. They quickly pooled their resources to set up community kitchens for the needy after the lockdown exacerbated the food crisis. Samuh volunteers reached out to vulnerable communities, including transgenders, commercial sex workers, homeless people in and around railway stations, people in night shelters, hospitals, bus stands, construction sites, domestic workers, students and children’s shelter homes. The group’s activities are mainly focused in old Bhopal which is still reeling under the impact of the gas tragedy in 1984.
Significantly, all the 10 deaths in Bhopal till April 27 occurred in the old city and the victims were gas tragedy survivors. The Samuh has set up 12 community kitchens and four collection centres which receive donations and food grains which go to the community kitchens. The group volunteers are dependent solely on contributions from among themselves and donations from their well-wishers.
From every crisis emerge new heroes, rising above caste, creed and community to help those crippled by the lockdown. In Delhi’s Kalkaji neighbourhood, Kamal Kardam and Afzal Qadri feed migrant labourers every day. They cook vegetarian pulao for some 100 people, load the packets on their scooters and set out to feed those they can find. “We are not very rich, but till the time it’s doable, we shall do it,” says Qadri.
In Coimbatore, Seva Bharathi, a voluntary organisation, has been cooking and distributing food to 25,000 people daily since the lockdown. They operate out of a wedding hall (given free by the owner) and donors give food grains, vegetables and other ingredients. There are 1,200 volunteers helping in the preparation and distribution of food to the poor, especially migrant workers from other states, in 35 neighbourhoods of the city.
Pooling Resources
The corona crisis and the challenge it poses have inspired many non-profit agencies to pool their resources to fight the war against hunger and deprivation. Organisations like SAFA, the Hyderabad-based social venture working with children and the urban poor, has tied up with NGOs like CRY and others to help distribute food and other necessities in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurugram, Delhi, Mumbai and North Karnataka. Akshaya Patra has also ramped up efforts to coordinate with other NGOs to implement food relief efforts across various locations. Cooked meals have already been provided in Jaipur, Ajmer, Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. As the implementing partner of the government’s flagship Mid-Day Meal programme, Akshaya Patra is already committed to providing wholesome meals to children. The pandemic has allowed the organisation to expand its humanitarian efforts to an unprecedented level.
So too has the Indian Red Cross Society, which is an auxiliary to the government and armed forces medical services. The global agency’s volunteers have tied up with local administrations to provide masks, food packages and dry rations to people in need.
The organisation is also running shelter homes, providing pick-up and drop facility for blood donors and facilitating home delivery of medicines to people suffering from chronic diseases. In Gujarat, the Red Cross branch has prepared a database of recovered Covid-19 patients who have consented to donate their blood for convalescent plasma therapy.
The Selfless Sikhs
In every such situation, the first to offer their services is the Sikh community, and gurudwaras across the country have responded in a massive way to organise community kitchens (langars) and distribute food wherever it is needed. So selfless and unceasing have their efforts been that last week saw the remarkable sight of policemen on motorbikes and officers in patrol cars doing a motorised parikrama of the Gurudwara Bangla Sahib in Delhi where langar is being prepared for 50,000 people daily, as a salute to their humanitarian efforts.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) has been serving langar to 1.25 lakh people every day in major gurudwaras in every corner of the capital. The DSGMC has also opened its guest houses to doctors and nurses facing accommodation issues.
In Hoshiarpur, each day, 32 vehicles set off packed with steaming hot langar to feed the poor and underprivileged in nearby villages. The Dhan Guru Ramdas Ji Langar Sewa has become the lifeline of the underprivileged and feeds as many as 1.5 lakh people daily. Run by a US-based NRI, the state-of-the-art equipment, special vehicles and machines imported from the US and Japan ensure that the langar sewa can produce fresh, hot meals for villages across Punjab.
In Amritsar’s Golden Temple, the Sikhs’ holiest shrine, the Guru Ram Das Langar Ghar, the largest community kitchen in the country, is still serving food but with new restrictions in place—devotees maintain social distancing while eating or praying, and in the langar hall, only 600 people are allowed in at a time, compared to the 1,000 who would gather earlier.
Says a spokesman for the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee: “We cannot think of discontinuing the langar sewa because there are thousands of poor people who are dependent on us for their food.”
Women Power
The other section of society that has emerged unhesitatingly to help in this crisis is women’s groups. In over 90 percent of India’s districts, away from the limelight and TV cameras, Self Help Group (SHG) women are producing face masks, running community kitchens, delivering essential food supplies, and sensitising people about health and hygiene and combating misinformation. They are financed by the World Bank’s $750 million support for India’s National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), the flagship programme to reduce poverty by mobilising poor rural women into SHGs which is now one of the world’s largest institutional platforms for the poor. Today, 67 million Indian women are members of six million SHGs and have set up community kitchens across rural India to feed the poor and migrants.
In Kerala, there is the Kudumbashree network, a community platform of women with 4.4 million members. They are running 1,300 kitchens across the state, while also delivering food to those in quarantine and the bedridden.
“Across the country, SHGs have risen to this extraordinary challenge with immense courage and dedication,” said Alka Upadhyay, Additional Secretary in India’s the Ministry of Rural Development, which manages the NRLM.
The Other Samaritans
The list of corona heroes seems endless. Only in times of a crisis like the one caused by Covid-19 do we see and hear of them. Some of these are:
Goong: The Delhi-headquartered social organisation has initiated a programme called “Rahat Covid-19” to ensure delivery of family kits of essentials, including dry rations and personal care materials, to areas where migrant labour has congregated.
MCKS Food for the Hungry Foundation: The Delhi-based non-profit organisation has delivered more than 1,00,00,000 meals to those in need, in partnership with local authorities across the country, since its inception. Now, they have increased capacity at the MCKS’ kitchens to deliver over 60,000 meals each week, apart from distributing energy foods like biscuits, bread and rusk.
Memunnam Seva Foundation: Started by a group of youngsters in Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh, they have been helping the poor by supplying essential commodities but also offering a free ambulance service to take people to hospitals and drop pregnant women at their homes. The vehicle belongs to one of the group members, three persons volunteer as drivers and other members provide funds for fuel.
Khushiyaan Foundation: Through its “Roti ghar’’ initiative, the foundation provides healthy and freshly cooked meals to street children. Since the Covid-19 outbreak, Khushiyaan has been providing meals to security guards, labourers and daily wage earners around Mumbai, Thane, Airoli and Bhiwandi.
Milaap: Based in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai, it provides food to daily wage earners but also helps with medicinal and other basic necessities.
Rise Against Hunger India: Has stepped in to support daily wage workers, construction workers, contract labourers and street vendors who have lost the only source of their income and have no means to make ends meet or provide food for their families. In five days, they have served nearly 200,000 meals to 22,500 people and are looking to ramp up their humanitarian efforts.
Rasoi on Wheels: A mobile kitchen service that is providing packed meals to the less privileged in Delhi-NCR.
There are also global agencies like CARE, Oxfam and others who have an established presence and network across India, but it is the incredible number of local organisations and individuals who are fighting enormous odds to bring relief and hope to millions of poor and underprivileged. As much as frontline health workers, these individuals and organizations deserve our salute and eternal gratitude.
Bollywood steps up
They are the privileged and now are reaching out to the underprivileged. Actor Sonu Sood has opened up his Juhu hotel to accommodate medical workers and provide meals to the underprivileged in Mumbai. He will be delivering meals to 25,000 migrants living in Bhiwandi during the holy month of Ramzan. Actress Rakul Preet Singh and her family have been preparing and sending home- cooked meals to around 250 families living in a slum close to her home in Gurugram, twice a day. Actress Ayesha Takia and husband Farhan Azmi have turned their hotel in Colaba into a quarantine facility for police personnel serving in South Mumbai. Superstar Salman Khan has transferred funds into the accounts of daily wage workers of the film industry. Some 25,000 daily wage workers who had been badly hit due to the nationwide lockdown, have benefitted from his gesture. The other Khan, Shah Rukh, and his wife, Gauri, have offered their four-storey office space in Mumbai as a quarantine facility. Actor Varun Dhawan has collaborated with Tata Trusts to provide meals to people who have lost their jobs, and also to healthcare workers. Reel life to real life has proved an epiphany.