Coronavirus, Covid19 has brought in untold sufferings to many people, most of those were daily wage earners
Lockdown 1st phase 24 March
2nd 14th April
3rd: 3 rd May
4th 17th May-31st May 2020
Lockdown has now become an integral part of our psyche and living, which means stop all social and economic activities and get locked up in your homes or shelters and other institutions provided by the Government if you are so unlucky to land up there.
Probably this is also most hated word by now amongst masses who earned their livelihood daily and earned their bread with pride. As a result of lockdown, they were deprived of the sources of livelihood and forced to beg or live on the charity provided by the Government and other NGOs.
And this was the only solution that the Government thought as Corona infection is known to spread through air and physical contact with those who are infected via or from the ones who came in contact with the source of infection, thought to be in City of Wuhan in China.
The infection was first reported by the Chinese doctor who thought of flue-like symptoms, but little different in the patients in last week of December 2019. Later, the cause of disease was reported to be due to corona virus which is similar to one that causes SARS, Ebola. However, this disease is very infectious as it spreads fast and is now reported from many countries in the world. At present, more than 15 millions are infected about about 300 000 are dead. The disease is fatal to the old persons, who are also suffering from chronic diseases like diabetes, heart etc.
As infection spread, and the lockdown was thought to be the only way to stop its spread, it caused huge problem of unemployment and consequently of providing food to great extent, and sheltor to some extent. Many organizations came forward arranging langers, community meals..
We in Vasundhra Apartments CGHS also arranged to provide aid in the form of food ration to the NGOs like ISKON and others.
In the Month of April, some residents of the Society provided food packets. Later, money was collected voluntarily and dry food ration was purchased and distributed to the NGOs. However, this experience was limited to only some. Many of residents had by now also donated to the various relief funds including Prime Minister National Relief Fund, and Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) fund for COVID-19 relief, etc. The latter was set up following Covid19 infection and is now reported to have received about Rs 9678 Crores (by 24th May, 2020).
In order to enhance our contribution, the Society thought of personally visiting each household and collect cash donation. I offered to do so in view of limited staff associated with the Society. So, myself, Mrs Rajani Joshi and Mr. Rajkumar went from door to door to collect as we had already informed through WhatsApp group that money will be collected. As per discussion in the Group, many felt that such door to door collection will ensure that those who are unable to move out or were not motivated enough earlier, will donate now. Our forenoon campaign helped us collect about Rs 57000/-, Rs 7000/- more than the target of Rs 50,000/- and many came forward to donate again despite the fact that they had done so earlier.
Personal touch in collection drive helped us to achieve collection in time and in the same afternoon, about 50% were spent for collecting dry ration like rice, wheat, edible oil, pulses and this lot was given next day afternoon to ISKON in Dwarka.
A few days later, other half was spent and given to the Delhi Govt School that ran kitchen.. and other NGO.
Ladies of the Society also organized tiffin (organized by Mrs Rajni Joshi) for as many as about 70 people providing basic rotis (4) as well as veggi per pack on 2-3 days for those migrants who were leaving City for their home towns. Such tiffins were also provided by other Societies. And it is reported that as many as 100 -125 tiffins were provided. Unfortunately, these were not enough as those leaving City were many more. But our lady members did to the best of our ability.
Although our Society did not indulge in seeking publicity, we ensured to take some photos of ration donation to the NGOs for the sake of info to our donors. However, TV visuals were full of such donations and participation of volunteers to help run community kitchens. Unfortunately, huge crowd of unemployed migrants and others had drained all, as many community kitchens were being run regularly and for a long time.
Contrast to these efforts, there were also some anonymous donors who did not want any credits. But these were not many as per the tradition.
As this 4th phase of lockdown ends on May 31, yesterday we had Amphan cyclone in the bay of Bengal that caused devastation in Odisha and West Bengal. It is reported that property of more than Rs 100 000 Crore was destroyed in West Bengal especially in Kolkatta, west Paraganasand other districts. The Prime Minister and Chief Minister of West Bengal toured Amphan affected area aerially and the former provided an initial aid of Rs 1000 Crores to West Bengal and Rs 500 Crore to Odisha from the PMNRF.
Other than food, migrant workers from many cities posed a problem as they desired to go back to their native places. Unfortunate stories of their migration brought sorrows, as the Government was initially not in favour of their movement back to their native places as it feared infection of Covid19 will spread far and wide. But the determination of migrant workers to go to their villages forced the Government to provide means of transport like bus and to limite extent trains. However, rush of migrant workers remains as on this day of the 24th May.
As we near the end of the 4th phase, infection of new persons is increasing. India has more than 135000 cases, with few mortalities, and daily infection that crossed 6500.
Philanthropy is a well established social behaviour amongst many people all over the world. And some that comes to my mind are also of corporates like those of TATA, GATES etc.....But this practice is not entrenched in India.
Philanthropy is pious activity. However, there are now questions asked about the way PM Cares fund for Covid19 is established and secrecy about its collection and may be management. In the days to come, probably some skeletons will come out about the misuse of the funds, as the decisions were taken urgently to meet the needs of the people affected, and some indiscretion might have occurred.
As our experience shows, some people did not donate, saying that they had done so earlier and other were miser, yet few were more forthcoming.
But we need to ask as to how much is a fair amount of our earning to donate at the time of crisis? or should we be doing philanthropy regularly as a part of our duty towards our Society of which we are lucky ones. Some suffers various kinds of discrimination and are denied basic rights of livelihood.
Besides money, I respect more those who use their time and energy for social works, as they do not have much money to donate.
Some religions do have prescription that a certain percentage of income must go to the poor. Yet, in Hinduism, this does not appear to be a case. Furthermore, it is often a religious offering rather than the social/economic upliftment offering that people like. Many do not have any hesitation in advertising their little donations. This reminds me of my visit to Vrindavan, wherein in one temple, donations were engraved on the tiles with names, place and amount donated. Often, in temples, we often see a list of donors engraved in the tiles or stone quite prominently.
I often do not donate or donate very little in the temples which are traditionally rich.
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