Around 300 good Samaritans from Sikh, Hindu, Muslim and other communities in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district have joined hands to feed daily wage earners rendered jobless by the lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus.
While the nomadic Gujjar community has been providing milk for 250 children of daily wage earners, Hindus, Sikhs and members of other communities have been feeding 7,000 people twice a day.
Besides, aged and ailing citizens are being provided medicines at their doorsteps.
The exercise had begun on March 23 but gained momentum from March 27 onwards. The police facilitated the operation to ensure that lockdown norms are not violated by those in need of food.
Kathua’s Senior Superintendent of Police, Shailendra Kumar Mishra said, “They are a team of 300 volunteers, who came under the banner ‘United Kathua JKP’. They operate through a helpline number 9540501414 for which a central control room has been set up at my office in Kathua.”
Navdeep Kumar, one of the volunteers, said, “We get calls from the people in distress on our helpline number. Subsequently, we enter such calls in our database and then trace its location before sending one of our volunteers on a bike with the relief material”.
{{/usCountry}}Navdeep Kumar, one of the volunteers, said, “We get calls from the people in distress on our helpline number. Subsequently, we enter such calls in our database and then trace its location before sending one of our volunteers on a bike with the relief material”.
{{/usCountry}}People need medicines, ration and then there are migrant labourers, who need cooked meals, he said.
“In case of medicines, we take the actual amount from those who can pay but we don’t take any money from those who can’t afford,” he said.
United Kathua volunteers work from 10 am to 8 pm every day and they reach out to the people in distress delivering them medicines and essential supplies at their doorsteps.
“The delivery is free of cost. They also feed around 7000 daily wage earners, mainly migrant labourers living in slums throughout the district with cooked meals twice a day for which nine community kitchens have been set up. Of course, hygiene and social distancing are indispensable,” Mishra said.
The United Kathua is self-financed and works without any government funding.
All volunteers are locals, who have bikes and wear white T-shirts, printed with “United Kathua JKP” logo to be easily identified by the people and security personnel for hassle free working.
“The bikers pay for their own fuel. They received and resolved over 700 calls in the first four days of the initiative. They are being guided and controlled by Kathua Police and the district administration,” said Mishra.
The SSP informed that amid total lockdown the volunteers have been successful in feeding hungry migrant labourers in Kathua district.
They also ensure medicines at the doorsteps of the people, especially the ones, which are not available in the local market.
“Medicines are provided free of cost to those who cannot afford. Medicines unavailable locally are procured from Punjab with the help of truckers entering Jammu and Kashmir with essential supplies,” said Mishra.
Since this initiative was launched, United Kathua got around Rs 4.50 lakh in donations, out of which Rs 3 lakh has been spent so far in providing meals and medicines to the needy, he added.
Drones were also being used by the police to make announcements and to locate migrant labourers.
Kathua, an industrial district, roughly has more than 12,000 labourers. While 5,000 who are industry pay rolls are being taken care of by their employers, 7,0000 were left to fend for themselves amid the sudden lockdown.
Another volunteer, Sardar Gaganpreet Singh, said, “We have roped in 15 load carriers that we use to take cooked meals to migrant labourers across the district. These meals that are being provided at 11 am and 6 pm every day are cooked at nine different community kitchens”.
Anis-ul-Rehman, another volunteer said, “Serving these migrant labourers and their children with food and milk gives them a sense of satisfaction. After all humanity teaches us love and compassion.”
Dev Mati, a migrant woman, in one of the slums, said, “We had nothing to eat and we would have died of starvation but God sent these men with food and milk”.
Nandini, another migrant labourer, said that she neither had money nor ration in her shanty for two days and then these young men arrived with food at their cluster.