KOZHIKODE: When Sultan Bathery Municipality called for volunteers to clean its Covid First-Line Treatment Centre (CFLTC), dancer Clinton Raphael did not have to think twice. A Kuchipudi diploma student in Bengaluru, the 26-year old joined as a volunteer at the St Mary’s Higher Secondary School which was converted into a CFLTC. On Sunday, he completed 10 days of duty.For Clinton, cleaning toilets and room floors used by patients is not a new thing. He has been doing that for a decade, attending to his bed-ridden mother.
“We — my father and two brothers — are doing the A to Z of my mother’s requirements as she cannot move on her own and is speech impaired. If one or two of us are away, whoever stays back will take care of her. I thought of joining as a cleaning staff at the CFLTC at this time of crisis as I wanted to do my bit,” he told TNIE.Clinton grabbed attention on Sunday after a video of his semi-classical dance performance in a PPE kit at the CFLTC went viral.
“Sunday was our batch’s farewell day. Hence, I performed the dance on the encouragement of the doctors and the paramedical staff,” said the youth from Sultan Bathery. Dr Suraj V V, the nodal officer of the CFLTC, said service-oriented youngsters are keen to take up cleaning.“We even have a BTech graduate who works as a cleaner. The youth see the coronavirus pandemic as the right time to lend a helping hand to society,” Dr Suraj observed.
The cleaning staff’s working hours at the CFLTC is from 8am to 8pm, including 4-5 hours wearing PPE. But the municipality is providing a paltry sum to the volunteers for their expenses. Now the St Mary’s HSS has 110 Covid positive people who have no other health issue. Hence, they are killing time by playing carroms and ludo.