{"id":7317,"date":"2016-03-23T03:24:56","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T21:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7317"},"modified":"2016-03-23T03:24:56","modified_gmt":"2016-03-22T21:54:56","slug":"ordinary-men-and-women-trying-to-save-india-covid-second-wave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=7317","title":{"rendered":"It Starts with One: A League of Ordinary Men and Women Trying to Save India Running Out of Breath"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

T<\/span>wenty-six-year-old Ramneek Oberoi usually mans the frontdesk of a car dealership in Delhi. Much before the world was confronted with a health crisis in the form of COVID-19, Oberoi moonlighted as a coordinator for a blood donation organisation called \u201cBlood For All\u201d. Nothing out of the ordinary really. On a normal day, he\u2019d keep his head low and not interfere in anyone\u2019s business. But it\u2019s been a while since we\u2019ve woken up to anything that feels regular. These days, as the capital continues to gasp for breath, shrouded in the fear of the pandemic, Ramneek is on his feet from 7 am. He is not cocooned inside his home but is out on the streets, running errands. On paper, he is not a frontline worker but for the aged people of West Delhi, he is nothing short of a saviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramneek buys essentials like medicines and groceries for old people, living alone in Delhi and delivers it to their doorstep. Many of them have children living abroad, who feel helpless as they read how the city has been brought down on its knees by a killer second wave, he tells me. \u201cI cannot sit still. There are people living abroad who are panicking about their aged parents back home; the least I can do is relieve their stress. I buy essentials for patients at home and deliver them to their doorstep. I\u2019m not affiliated with any organisation; I go wherever the work takes me,\u201d he says.

On paper, he is not a frontline worker but for the aged people of West Delhi, he is nothing short of a saviour.<\/blockquote>
It all started with one phone call from Canada. Far away from home, his friend who was frantic with worry about his mum and dad called Ramneek to seek help for medicines. With no heart to turn him down, he set out in search of whatever medical aid he could bring to his friend\u2019s aged parents. Little did he know that he wouldn\u2019t stop. Today, he has turned caregiver to many Dilliwallas who are living away from family and friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramneek has not been vaccinated; of course he is scared. But the helplessness of the old and frail, he says, pales in comparison to his fears. He is a one-man army and yet he is not alone. He is joined by hundreds of everyday Indians who have volunteered to save a nation that\u2019s battered but not broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was India\u2019s greatest weakness is proving to be its most reckoned asset \u2013 her population. Citizens from every corner have taken it upon themselves to provide relief to those who are suffering in a country with lakhs<\/a> of cases per day. We have seen flashes of this strength in unity, this mass mobilisation earlier this millennium. When Mumbai faced a deluge in 2005, it was the people who kept it afloat; all transpiring at a time without social media to guide them. In 2012, following the Delhi gang-rape tragedy, inhabitants of not just the capital but also other cities staged<\/a> sit-ins to protest against the inaction by the State that pushed it to amend our rape laws.

What was India\u2019s greatest weakness is proving to be its most reckoned asset \u2013 her population.<\/blockquote>
In 2021, as the country has been ravaged once again, maybe because we declared victory against the pandemic too soon, India has seen the rise of the Everyman \u2013 many of them millennials and Gen Z who get a bad rap for being too self-occupied. Thanks to social media, the dissemination of data pertaining to resources has been accelerated and far-reaching. Toolkits, which not too long ago, were a by-word of anti-nationalism<\/a> have now become the very foundation in the country\u2019s collective fight against COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witnessing the mayhem that unfolded on our social media timelines \u2013 SOS calls for oxygen, ICU beds, medicines \u2013 most of us were gripped by despair. There were a few good men and women who decided to do something about it. Who like Ramneek couldn\u2019t stay still. Vivek Anand, a 33-year-old start-up founder from Bangalore, initiated a COVID relief database on a WhatsApp group where one could locate patients to donate funds to. After this garnered a massive response, the group could no longer house the sheer number of donors. That\u2019s when CovidDonors<\/a> was launched as a website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a person-to-person platform established to bridge the distance between donors and patients in real-time. The patient needs to only fill the form corresponding to their expenditures, this is then verified by the team with the hospitals. \u201cWhen the cases started multiplying in the country, I sought places where I could donate money. I then realised that there were many others like me who wanted to help. The site was launched within the week and in that period, we managed to raise \u20b982 lakh so far,\u201d says Anand. Anand currently runs this initiative in collaboration with his former colleagues and some volunteers whom he\u2019s never personally met but knows through Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collaborating with Anand as well as steering her own ship is Jelam Bhatt. The 25-year-old working with The Product Folks, a volunteer-driven community, started this initiative in order to streamline the panic in the country by collating all possible resources. She, along with a team, launched IndiaCovidResources<\/a> which also has a separate donation wing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are currently equipped with over 250 volunteers and verified leads for over 1500 resources across the country. What lies at the heart of their mission is to provide people with verified hospital beds, oxygen tanks, medicines and so on. \u201cWhile we have a handful of people working on-ground, we cannot compel anyone to put their lives at risk. However, some people are still willing to go the extra mile. What is really tragic in this entire ordeal is that people\u2019s needs are outnumbering the available resources. We would also like to reach out to those in remote areas of the country where they do not have access to the Internet,\u201d says Bhatt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for those who currently lack the privilege of being online, Srishty Ranjan, 24, has been personally telephoning locals from far-flung villages in Bihar and Jharkhand. Upon request, she puts them in touch with a point of contact at the nearest hospital. Her ultimate aim is to curb the information divide between metros and small towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I realised a common thing when I spoke to these changemakers. They all started with just one phone call, one tweet, by verifying one lead, and haven\u2019t been able to stop since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The COVID-19 crisis has rocked India\u2019s boat, the casualties have become statistics, and agitated citizens are her only anchors. Interestingly, the initiatives undertaken by citizens are a scale-agnostic effort. While some are contributing north of \u20b980 lakh, the others are adding to the kitty with \u20b98000 through sales of their paintings, poetry, and music \u2013 a little that is going a long way. As discontentment is abound in the country, grief has emerged as an emotion that feels so private and yet ubiquitous. In a country where the flicker of the future is slowly diminishing, its people have surfaced with beacons of hope. There may be a dearth of resources in India, but not of her citizens\u2019 indomitable spirit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the second wave of the pandemic hit us, our timelines were flooded with SOS calls. We were all filled with despair but then a few among us decided to do something about it. This is the story of those men and women, who started by making one phone call, running one errand, verifying one source, and haven\u2019t stopped since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":422,"featured_media":7318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10108],"tags":[11273,11254,10388,11272,11274,111],"class_list":["post-7317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus","tag-covid-warriors","tag-oxygen-cylinders","tag-pandemic","tag-second-wave","tag-sos","tag-twitter"],"yoast_head":"\nIt Starts with One: A League of Ordinary Men and Women Trying to Save India Running Out of Breath<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As the second wave of the pandemic hit us, our timelines were flooded with SOS calls. We were all filled with despair but then a few among us decided to do something about it. 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