KOLKATA: The unprecedented lockdown in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus in India, has given rise to a humanitarian crisis, where thousands are going to sleep every night without a morsel of food in their stomach. Amidst the crisis, several good samaritans have come forward to do their bit to help the starving souls.
In Kolkata, a group of six friends have come together to feed villagers in the state. The group has so far raised more than Rs 4,000,00 through donations from their friends and colleagues and fed 1200 families in West Bengal.
Ritambar Das, Arijit Roy Chowdhury, Preetom Bhattacharya, Abhijit Sarkar, Sukanya Dutta and Rovers Chatterjee with the help of their friends from other cities in India, US and UK have been delivering ration to families in four villages which are completely cut off from the cities amid lockdown.
Three kilograms of rice, one kilogram of potato and some lentils go into a bag that is then distributed among the villagers. So far the group has managed to help people in Mallickpur, Joytola, Piyali and Betberia. From procuring the ration to distribution, these six people have been doing it all on their own with the help of local police.
“We decided to take this initiative after one of Rritambar’s employees asked for financial support for the people of his village. But for him, it was not possible to take the responsibility of the entire village. So he pitched the idea to some of us and we decided pool money and help them,” said one of the members of the team.
This group of young professionals have also started a Facebook page ‘Feed the Need- by willing souls’ to spread the word and collect funds. The members of the group added that it’s a close circuit network but they are deliberating the option of crowdfunding.
“We initially had a target to collect Rs 15,000 so that we could feed at least 150 families.Our friends passed on the information to their friends who started donating. We coordinate everything through a WhatsApp group. We add every donor to the group to keep them updated,” he added.
The group recently held a ‘thanksgiving’ event in South Kolkata for the essential service providers(police, delivery agents, et al) where they were given snacks and energy drinks.
“We have been distributing these rations on our own with the support from the local police. However, we have decided to engage daily wage labourers in distributing work so that we can pay them a fee to sustain themselves,” a member added.
We are not doing any religion-based distribution, the group maintains adding that it is imperative to look beyond such petty issues and help everyone who is less fortunate.
The group is scheduled to distribute more rations among the families of three more villages in South 24 Parganas district.