BENGALURU: On his way to his office at Dairy Circle, Amod Mahajan, a techie would regularly notice homeless people struggling in the cold beneath the flyover at Silk Board. Amod who works the night shift was always a keen social worker. He decid ed to collect blankets and donate it to these homeless people.
The drive of distributing blankets started last year in December and has been going on with renewed interest this winter. “We were a bit late last year when the drive was initiated. It was done at the end of December,” says Amod who founded an NGO called Choti Si Pahal for his social work activities. “This year we are doing it early because the nights will be colder by December,” adds Amod.
The techie has been a regular volunteer for various social causes but he says he soon realised that the ethics behind some organisations and NGOs was not at all he expected. So he launched his own organisation a year and a half ago and gathered other corporate professionals like himself to join the cause.
“We are a group of 50 people members who all work in different corporate sectors. We conduct one social event a month where we can help those in need,” says Amod. The team helps in terms of materials and not money. “We realised that money is easily misused but if we ask the people on what they need, we give them,” he adds.
For this winter’s blanket distribution drive, the team plans to cover five areas in the city namely Silk Board, CV Raman Nagar and Marathalli. “But our main focus will be Kengeri,” says Amod emphasising that there are more homeless people in that area. The drive will be conducted at night so that the homeless are recognised on the streets and catered. All the blankets are self sponsored by the team so 50 blankets will be given out.