NEW DELHI: Meet the family of five corona warriors who are doing their bit to help citizens at large — one is a police officer, one a councillor, another a social activist and a couple who are both doctors.
For Saurabh Solanki, a constable posted at Sahibabad police station in Uttar Pradesh, visiting home is a thing of the past.
“Ever since lockdown was announced, I haven’t gone back home as we have to be around for extra duty hours. I am visiting each house of my locality to ensure every citizen gets every essential thing required for their living. This way, citizens too cooperate with us and adhere to the rules,” he said.
Recalling an incident which took place almost a week back, wherein a family faced hardship when one of their own passed away and they had no money to cremate him, Saurabh not only gave them money but also completed all rituals required at that time.
Similarly, Shivani Solanki who is a councillor from Vaishali area is busy these days in managing sanitation in her ward, which hasn’t seen a single case of COVID-19 so far.“We have dedicated teams of garbage collection and sweeping and extra efforts have also been made to conduct fogging in the ward every alternate day. I have also suggested to the mayor to work out a mechanism for those who don’t have ration cards with them,” Shivani said.
Sharing Shivani’s responsibility is her husband and social activist Gaurav Solanki who is taking care of all daily wage workers in the ward and is feeding 100 people daily twice a day.“Initially I used to give 20 people food which I requested my family members to cook and serve. But slowly the number of people rose, so I asked a local restaurant to prepare packed food parcels for 100 people, which I distribute each day,” Gaurav said adding that he will go the extra mile to make sure no one in his ward sleeps hungry.
And while Saurabh, Shivani and Gaurav are doing their part, a married couple, both doctors are is working day in and out to treat their patients.
Surabhi Solanki Raghav, sister of Gaurav Solanki, an MD in pathology is busy arranging blood for essential surgeries being conducted in Delhi NCR and also performs her duty of visiting hospitals on her usual routine.“We are doing our duty and are sometimes going beyond it to make sure the patients stay safe,” Surabhi said.
Surabhi’s husband — Abhiman Raghav, MD Pediatrics is busy in conducting safe deliveries of babies.
“This period of lockdown is a challenge for professionals like us for whom profession comes first. There are days when I went to the hospital at midnight to help a woman in labour. So far 15 successful babies have been delivered during this lockdown period,” Abhiman recalls.
On a query as to how he manages time for his private patients, he says technology is helping him a lot.
“I use video and phone calls to prescribe medicines to my patients since I can’t open my private clinic at this time, but at the same time, I just can’t ignore them,” Abhiman adds.But even in this lockdown area, all these warriors make sure to connect twice a day on video call to share their day’s activities and also to know their wellbeing.