India is fighting against the Corona Virus1 and we are leaving no stones unturned. The news of young children collecting funds to fight the deadly virus2, women making masks at their homes to distribute it to poor and needy people and couples and NGO’s distributing free food and accommodation to people who are stuck with nowhere to go. These news bring a smile to our faces amidst the tough times but there is more to it. The forest dwellers who don’t usually fall into much media coverage are being helped too.
In the small district of Raisen, Madhya Pradesh the heads of Vidhya Bharti Bhaurao Devras Service Center Bhopal are taking a huge step to provide masks to the villages who have abundant forest dwellers.
The 111 Saraswati Sanskar Centers run by the organization have taken up the jobs of making masks and distributing them to the villagers and forest dwellers. The work is supervised by the ‘Acharya’ and ‘Didi’ as they call their heads by these names. To make the work faster and smoother, even the heads of these centers have joined in to set an example for the others. With their joint efforts they have distributed masks to a large number of people.
The centers worked by installing the sewing machines at their homes and respected the social distancing by not gathering in mass to avoid the spread. They used to sew the masks at their homes and later distribute it to the needy ones. They are not only distributing the masks to the forest dwellers but also making them aware of the ongoing pandemic.
Proper method to wash the hands and usage of the mask are being demonstrated to the people. They are also advising people on how to stay safe and are spreading awareness about preventive measures against the corona on a large scale.
Apart from these medical helps, the centers are also providing them with wheat grains as the proper import of grains has reduced. They are giving away wheat grains, the staple food, to poor and needy. Since the mill services have been stopped due to the lockdown precaution, the center is also providing milling facility to the villagers and forest dwellers so that they can have the basic necessity covered, which is wheat flour to make their food without paying for the service.
Private organizations like the Saraswati Sanskar Centers are being the helping hands for the underprivileged and needy ones. Another couple in the Sehore district has distributed screen sheets to the police department as a preventive measure against the corona virus.
Activist Megha Parmar and Shobhit Nath Sharma gifted 110 screen sheets to the Police Department as these men have been on duty since day one but with no proper equipment to protect them. These sheets have been made with plastic and foam and are available to the public at a cheap price of rupees 9 to 10 only. They have made around 5,000 screen sheets for the public and are selling it for a minimal price.
- Van Der Hoek, Lia, et al. “Identification of a new human coronavirus.” Nature medicine 10.4 (2004): 368-373. ↩︎
- Moratelli, Ricardo, and Charles H. Calisher. “Bats and zoonotic viruses: can we confidently link bats with emerging deadly viruses?.” Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz 110 (2015): 1-22. ↩︎
Last Updated on by NamitaSoren