Locals in Chitrakoot using social media to help tribals

Lucknow: When Nathu Kol, a tribal of Karwi block of Chitrakoot district failed to get medicine for his ailing wife, he sought helps from a local resident who shared Kol’s appeal for help in the local social media group

Lucknow: When Nathu Kol, a tribal of Karwi block of Chitrakoot district failed to get medicine for his ailing wife, he sought helps from a local resident who shared Kol’s appeal for help in the local social media group. Acting swiftly on the message, a group of locals arranged the medicines and drove to Kol’s village to hand them over.

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A group of locals in Chitrakoot district are using social media to arrange rations, vegetables, medicines and emergency help for people living in tribal pockets of the district. The group began its work when the Covid-19 cases spiked again in late March.

With the help of Parhit Seva Sansthan, an NGO, the group arranges help for people living in tribal areas. Anuj Hanumant of Parhit Seva Sansthan said, “We started arranging help for people in April when the government machinery was exhausted with rising number of Covid-19 cases. We started with by delivering dry rations to people in tribal pockets and slowly expanded from there.”

Reportedly, the livelihood of the tribals was affected badly due to restrictions imposed in the wake of spurt in Covid-19 cases. To reach out to tribals in need, the group uses social media groups. “As very few tribal families have smart phones, we added as many locals as possible, including businessmen, students and journalists who use smart phones in tribal areas so that they could inform about people needing help,” said Hanumant. “We started with one group which has now expanded to four groups with more than 300 members,” he added.

When the group receives a request for help from tribals, it arranges whatever is required and ensures that it is delivered to the family. The group claims to have given food and other help to over 1000 tribal households in the past two months.

“We also seek support from the district administration, specially in case of medical emergencies for tribals,” said Anuj.