Collaborate with NGOs as a Covid Volunteer

 was interviewed by the journalist.It is published now.

https://medium.com/@mktpulse.sonia/a-million-hearts-beat-for-a-billion-strangers-dc8971e94392

The interview was published by Ms.Sonia Kapoor .A successful professional web journalist

My story is about experiencing a very different face of India in the pandemic. With a stressed and overwhelmed health infrastructure, I saw how people had their backs to the wall and rebounded with incredible courage and resilience to manage an unprecedented humanitarian crisis . I saw millions of small and big acts of kindness from strangers ready to help a billion of their countrymen.

Which moved me to write this piece.

This New India

For the last twenty-five years, I have been a dual resident of India and other countries. Visits back home were always fun. But this time was very different. On April 7, I flew to Delhi in response to my sister’s call for help as both parents contracted Covid. The next four weeks were a terrifying blur of events as we struggled to cope with a crisis that had become personal.

Staying back to look after my family, I was pulled into an immersive experience both stirring and unique, and in its wake showing me a new face of India I would have missed otherwise. I was surrounded by the energy of ordinary citizens, communities, Corporates and NGO’s performing extraordinary acts of service as the pandemic started it journey of destruction:

· ‘Oxygen langars’ by the Sikh community

· Non-stop social media posts on sources for oxygen, hospital beds, medicines and blood plasma

· Doctors creating helpline videos and performing last rites for patients on behalf of families

· Emotional helplines by counsellors

· #CovidWomenHelp to find jobs for Covid widows

· Students creating lead management portals for genuine sources of medicines and hospital beds

The list of small and big movements continues even today.

Something special was happening here.

While helping others is embedded in our culture, this unprecedented show of collective activism was something new and exciting for me. As a non-resident citizen and as a market researcher, I wanted to know more and asked my friend K (a shy social activist in her own right) for introductions to citizens who had done exceptional work in the pandemic.

I spoke to four Covid heroes: Jayshree, founder of Mitr-Friends In Need; Pooja, co-founder of Feeding From Far; Priya, recipient of a state sponsored Covid Warrior Award; Savita, an active Rotarian and dedicated social worker

I asked them three questions:

· What was your motivation to volunteer during Covid? What made you act?

· How did you feel serving people and communities you did not even know?

· What were the enablers in your contribution journey?

A Call For Action That Just Had To Be Answered

For all four, the crisis was a strident call for service to humanity. The virus was indiscriminate and brutal. Everyone knew someone who had been impacted.

“The sheer scale of the humanitarian crisis spurred me into action” said Jayshree. Her Facebook platform (Mitr- Friends in Need) of 1800+ members and volunteers have responded to all kinds of pleas for help. They arranged relief for displaced migrant workers; found a home for an autistic adult who lost his caregiver to Covid; set up blood and plasma donation camps and even helped a stranded student in Kenya.

Priya talked about the gap citizens had to fill. “You saw how much need there was. If you didn’t do it, no one else was there to do it. The system was overwhelmed”, she said. Priya described a “domino effect” as one person’s voluntary effort spurred others to action. In particular, she was amazed to see the level of involvement of young people at the frontline of volunteering efforts. For her own contributions Priya received a state sponsored Covid Warrior Award. She was the ‘go to’ person for a panicked public looking for hospital beds, PPE masks, medicines, oxygen, and even ambulances.

Young Pooja said she and her friends felt the “Guilt of the Privileged.” They were fortunate to have shelter, food and family as their city went in lockdown- but there were so many who did not. “ Finding a purpose is important for our generation”, she said. There was a restlessness to “do something” and they chatted about it on social media. Feeding From Far came from one such conversation, when her college friend suggested setting up community kitchens in one of Mumbai’s largest slums, distributing food to daily wagers who had lost their jobs in the pandemic.

Savita confirmed “ a sense of duty towards society “ motivated her to act. She gave up a full time formal job with a multinational to become an independent IT professional. She is also an active Rotarian. Savita rolled up her sleeves and was ready to contribute when the second wave hit Mumbai. She worked together with multiple NGO’s and welfare organisations. She did block bookings at hospitals to ensure her community got vaccinated. She tracked Twitter announcements for medicines, beds, oxygen supplies and verified these leads to ensure genuine information was passed on to those who needed them. She also collected and shared valuable plasma donor information with existing NGO’s and volunteer networks.

Feelings of Connectedness and Empowerment

How did they feel about serving communities in the pandemic?

Jayshree felt a strong sense of connectedness with humanity. Family became not just the immediate one-it was the entire world. “For me, the whole world looks like a single unit. It is an expansion of our connectedness. And I feel safe in this world”.

Pooja was emotionally stirred by the scale of suffering she saw. At the peak of the migrant exodus, Feeding From Far supplied food packs at railway stations to workers jostling to get into trains to return home. “This campaign was not something where friends get involved out of a sense of obligation. We wanted volunteers who had the capacity and strength to continue work despite the suffering they were seeing”, she said.

Savita talked about her satisfaction saving lives through information and “connecting the dots.” She recalled helping a poor Covid infected patient. His sister was in touch by phone and started texting Savita when oxygen levels were going down. Savita alerted the already pressurised and overworked hospital staff to take quick action, which they did. Savita felt a sense of empowerment she could contribute in her capacity- “ while the young were at the frontline, we could also contribute within the four walls of our houses. This gave me confidence a lot can be achieved even by older people.”

Priya said the recognition she received through awards and grateful messages filled her with a deep sense of gratification. She believed citizens had a major role to play in closing the gap created by an overwhelmed system.

Digital Was The Hero

The power of digital and social media was universally acknowledged.

Jayshree’s idea for Mitr-Friends In Need came from a personal crisis solved by Google Maps. In the lockdown, her husband’s parents, living separately, could not buy their groceries. Not knowing what to do, Jayshree searched for an address close to their house on Google Maps, found a phone number, and just dialed. A stranger picked up the phone and was more than willing to help buy groceries for them. This incident seeded Jayshree’s Facebook platform. If strangers could become angels, then let’s build a network of such angels on social media.

Pooja also uses Instagram as her platform to share information about Feeding From Far’s mission and activities, for crowd-funding and for creative messaging. What’s App, Twitter, Telegram have been invaluable for Priya and Savita to ‘connect the dots’ between vendors, suppliers and beneficiaries, ensuring real-time help to desperate citizens.

Eye-Openers

As I sat down to reflect on what I heard from these four stories, and what I had seen myself, five things stood out for me:

An inspiring purpose can move mountains — As humans we all look for meaning in our lives. The pandemic gave people a purpose- to stand up and take charge since the system was buckling under pressure. Saving lives became their call to action and they were ready to contribute in any way they could.

Service is the highest form of happiness- volunteering in the service of others is the highest source of satisfaction and happiness. Service turns strangers to friends and renders caste, class, geography and religion as meaningless dividers of humanity.

Everyone is a change-maker — whether young or old, everyone was doing something: organising medicines, feeding migrant workers, setting up vaccination camps, organising meals for Covid patients. Realising their own potential to be influence change and add value was a moment of truth for citizens.

India’s “Demographic Dividend” is real- students and young adults had been at the forefront of the crisis. Millennials and ‘Generation Z’ were often catalysts of local movements and campaigns- not afraid to be frontline volunteers, despite the health risks to themselves.

Crisis seeds Innovation — The ‘oxygen langars’, Feeding From Far, Mitr-Friends In Need — are all examples of identifying a gap and finding a creative solution in real-time. When there is a real need, grass-root solutions will come and quickly.

In my next article, I put on my lens as a consumer marketer and talk about what brands and businesses can do to win the hearts and minds of the emerging new PURPOSIVE CONSUMER.

Some uggestions and thought process to counter current situation in Mumbai India

These are critical times and MH Govt and BMC need to act on war footage.

NY too things are improving when lock down there started much later than Mumbai.Lock down will work only if it is followed with 100% commitment by all.

Else population which is following rigorously (and compromising sitting at homes) too suffers almost as much those who break the lockdown.

Lock down being broken in numerable pockets across Mumbai is affecting State economy and the sincere segment of public of Mumbai too.

Why can't we get drones with cameras ,flying all round Mumbai, immediately reporting assembly of people in road,streets, society compounds ,so that cops can go within minutes and disperse.

When crowd that assembles has knives and daggers and ready to use against cops..Does state expect Mumbai police to fight them to disperse using their sticks ?

Can we not get CRPF ASAP.or equip trained local cops appropriately?

We see news that somewhere facility for 10000.beds is set up, we are happy to see the photos with beds etc.after 10 days we again we same news item with caption facility almost ready.

This is heart wrenching. Why is it taking so long to set up one temperory facillity where no construction is involved.when we know.people are dying due to unavailability of information about location wise available bed count.As they are shunted from one hospital to other.after waiting 4-5 hours for ambulance.

Can we not have central data repository being updated dynamically to push latest data to website?

People are calling and holding the hotlines for hours .

2Shree Bhave and Rahul Sharma

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'Me Too' : what it is meant for?

Women who are really strong and are in good position and don't feel professionally threatened, do react ,slap or even shout at the guys and create ruccus, immediately, when the incident it self happens. And they don't need to hashtag after 10 years. Those who keep quiet at that time usually do it as they feel their job or means for earning is at stake. They feel safer to bring it up after 10 years when the risks are much less or sometime it may even help them in some way. Again just hashtagging may not result in anything unless they take legal action if they really want the guy punished. To punish the guy legal action will help much more than hashtagging .Many are only hashtagging and saying that it is not to punish the guy as such but to 'release the internal pressures the have been carrying for years'. Even in Cavanaugh case it did not affect him as there was no legal action and in the basic inquiry there was no proof or witness. Only filing legal case will result in detailed inquiry investigation and proofs etc.

Thus only hashtagging seems to be serving some internal purpose and general public when fails to understand, it may give rise to whole lot of jokes floating on net on various Social networking sites. There may be jokes even if legal case is filed. Many posts floating around asking everyone not to forward jokes related to this topic. In general forwards must be controlled and in fact fowards blocking and choking bandwidths and device memories is posing great problems for users. HOwever when people are not against forwarding jokes on some other topic but they feel that those who forward jokes about Me too movement are being insensitive. Most of the jokes do redicule some segment of the society, it may be religion, Regional, Gender based, Community based,Geography based, language based. Jokes are most of the times at the expense of a person or group of people. If not people it may ridicule various practices, so called best practices, religious , regional practices etc. Jokes most of the times end up offending someone or the other. 

Should mankind stop joking as it may always offend someone? One of the post stated that  Continuously ridiculing may lead to depression and eventual suicide.

When a whole community or huge group of people are being ridiculed by forwarding jokes about them, also telling in person on various forums,,Have the suicide rate for that community gone up?

In fact We see many times members of that community  joking about themselves and enjoying. How a jokes lead to depression?If at all it makes everyone laugh and enjoy and helps take out some other or daily pressures.

Some one who could live with the (Me TOO kind of ) problem for more than 10 years,Had quite close to normal life for more than 10 years post incident, most of them doing exceptionally well,(even if some of them may have  lost some opportunities do to incident) Now hashtagged someone.. Will they be driven to depression because of jokes floating around regarding 'Me too ' so called movement? Appears highly unilkely.

Off course if it happens when you are minor etc..It is a different ball game.in that case one should bring it up as soon as they are in a position to go for legal action..Or take support and or feel comfortable to take support of the guardians. Such incidents must not be tabboos, only then they will be openly discussed by victims as and when they happen . That will discourage such offenders also to go ahead with such offenses against women. When it is a tabboo it gains unduly negative importance , resulting in gossiping, over sensationalisation across nets etc.

Public memories are short lived and media creates havoc till it finds something else that will give better TRP. Women should learn to react and take legal action immediately. And to be able to be able to do that(in case required) they should always thrive to get to such positions. Unfortunately over the years our society (Most of the times) deliberately did not allow women to rise at faster pace (Mainly to become financially independent) by many times depriving them of higher education, some times denying them of opprtunities due to arrying off by certain age, dumping all family responsibilities when actually it is time to complete education,(Instead of sharing those by all family members).Wome find it difficult to counter such offenses then and there itself as they see many risks in near future.

Indirectly Our Society is responsible for this big mess.

Trying to Gather Positive Spirit in spite of Upsurge in Rape Cases

As usual, while cursing my maid who have been making sounds in the kitchen, I got up Saturday morning may be 15-20 minutes later than usual schedule. Thus enjoying the moments of over sleeping. At the same time happy that one more day maid has come , and that too,  not too late.

I freshened up , while appreciating lovely Mumbai early morning monsoon weather  as well as hot tea, started reading the news paper..

And slowly my mood started changing. What a way to start a weekend..

If you see the four news items which caught my attention, appeared in todays TOI Mumbai.
Each reflects  a certain  aspect about our society..

- 1.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Six-year-old-rape-victim-ordered-to-wed-rapists-8-year-old-son/articleshow/22330723.cms
6 year old rape victims has been asked to marry 8 year old son of a rapist (Apperantly this adult rapist raped her twice in 15 days-this Panchayat is so ignorant , that it does not think of the possibility of father in law getting free access for all future rapes. Has the rapist been punished ? Who is being punished? Rapist or victim? Who has gained in the process and who has lost? Sorry for the sick sarcasm.. But who is being rewarded?
- 2. 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/6-get-life-term-for-National-Law-School-gang-rape/articleshow/22384704.cms

6 Rapists are given life term who rapes foreign student(I am happy about the  harsh well deserved punishment . Some how sense here that victim got a better justice but was it because she was foreigner?-Hope this becomes precedence and all victims get a similar justice . Is this justice enough? Can victims be compensated further? In what way? What will be sufficient and what will be necessary?

- 3. 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Biker-gang-chases-girls-for-19km-on-Bengal-highway-molests-them/articleshow/22384059.cms

A group of 2 girls and 2-3 guys who were returning from their work assignment as DJs in the club , were very well protected had car and driver, and it was not too late either. Were first abused in the restaurant where they went for dinner and hence they left in a hurry only to be chased by 6 bikers who finally made them get out and bashed up everybody (while calls to various police stations were not responded to favorably-usual answers like we will inform right police station etc.) luckily bridge maintenance staff came over and assailants fled.- Here I am not happy that these girls who were doing their job and taking care of all the risks, were still molested, abused and hurt . I feel bad for their colleagues too who actually tried to help them. Very sad that multiple police stations did not respond and did not think of  acting in time. But happy that some govt staff came for their rescue(This was not too late at night and still many passer bys in cars ignored and did not come to help is a concern . The chase went on for 19 minutes. Post which they were beaten up as well as molested.

- 4. 
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&AW=1378554909621

Last one to my horror. A rape victim and her family took the law in their hand and burnt the criminal rapist. There is a lesson here that this is how the victim will react if society takes these things lightly.

On this background I remembered  comments we usually hear, from our friends , relatives and so called celebrities and hosts in chat shows, as soon as any rape happens

-         Girls should not take risks - What do they mean? Girls should not work They should not go to the college? Should they not have equal freedom so that they too can obtain their own lively hood? Do they not deserve some relaxation post long day at work? Should they not have equal access to education and whatever follows after that? Late evening coaching classes has become routine in most of the A+,A, B and C class cities.

-         Girls should Dress up properly : Has any one asked what 5 year old was wearing? What do women wear in Rajasthan ,UP and Bihar? Western clothing is probably last 30 years trend in Metros and definitely not in interior rural area where these rapes happen.

-         Why doesn’t any body talk about the rapist himself? Is he not the prime , main and only cause? In his absence rape will be totally prevented. I still have not seen any talk show that discussed as to how the

o   Possible future rapist can be identified? What traits do they have?

o   Can there be possible counseling sessions to such target focus group?

o   What kind of infrastructure will prevent the rapes with in time action from authorities (eg. Cameras in lonely areas with surveillance during certain hours)

o   Can women be taught judo ,karate etc. as a compulsory course . This is little tricky as the rapes are happening at the age of 6 months to 60 years. but at least certain age group can be the beneficiaries . In this regard have seen some postings etc. on FB and Emails.

o   Can regulations become tighter and can judiciary system move fast enough to have some pressure on the possible criminal? We hear criticism on judiciary system but rarely any suggestions on immediate actions.

At the same time  I try to gather my positive spirit. In spite of upsurge in no of rape cases, I do not somehow believe that they are on the rise. The reporting is on rise. And this may work towards betterment as more and more details are being reported. They are being discussed in various forums. Many suggestion for prevention are being discussed. Many organization trying to work out on the post rape trauma of the victims. This may ultimately result into if not great at least some improvement in the situation.

However prevention needs to be expedited on war footage.

Food Security Bill - Will it help?

In what way will this  Bill provide the Food Security to poors? 

Do we have shortage of grains and Agri produce? Or the problem is somewhere else?

As per the reports and pictures published last year,

millions of tons of grains are wasted due t0
- unavailability of storage facilities (As it gets wet due to rains etc, or gets damaged and /or eaten by rats etc..)
- Unavailability of distribution facilities

Age old PDS totally became defunc due to 
- lack of availability of grains etc. in the ration shops
- Ration shop owners selling the same stuff in open market for higher prices and nt providing it to card holders at lower prices

Looks like they have brought down the prices to ridiculously lower level..(Almost 1/4th or 1/5th of the market prices- As I understand old PDS had ration shops selling grains at 30% discount or so. Hence at 2/3rd of the market prices)

This adds to further more incentive for the shop owners to sell it in open market and not providing it to the deserving ones(Yellow card holders I guess)
By making it a ‘right to access to food’ .. I can't understand how it will help..
Probably a case can be filed against Ration shop owner by a poor (Yellow BPL card holder expecting him to hire a lawyer etc.) .. If these ration shop owners are stopped from selling the grains in open market at higher price(By making is a right to access to he quota for BPL card holder  these ration shop owners may simply opt out of the system). 

One other option that can be tried is to give the yellow card holders a smart card which can be topped up periodically (Say quarterly) where a person can buy  ONLY GRAINS at market price in any shop. (May be govt. can try this with lower quota(Say 10 Kgs per month instead of 25) and see .
As this may work better than giving the 25 Kgs as 1/3 rd of the price.
The jump in demand (And in business in turn) may result in automatic improvement in distribution and storage facilities..

The yellow card holder may try to work and earn for food on alternate days..
As anything that is free (or almost free too loses it's value in the eyes of a receiver)

Reaction to 5 Things women need to Change Proposed by Chetan Bhagat :

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&AW=1362906843171

Very Happy with this Chetan Bhagat Article. Nice to know the 5 things about women that men want to change. I am very happy that following things neither figure nor deserve any mention.. 1. Women Raping Men 2. Women murdering men post rape 3. Groom burning 4. Dowry harassment of men by women 5. Men jumping from multistoried along with toddlers due to mental torture and agony from in laws. 

When these things or similar become rampant we can propose for Men's day. At the same time I am happy that Men in India are very very bothered and concerned about Women bitching about other women. I can understand why men feel bad when women give up rights of matrimonial property very easily. Specially when their wives do it. Not very sure whether they are happy or unhappy when their sisters give up their rights. Can also understand that women should not get trapped in relationship drama. They should learn to sacrifice only when they know that it will make them feel nice. They must not sacrifice only because (1. society expects,2. Relatives expect 3. serials and stupid old literature and moves depict so.) I agree that in the article Chetan Bhagat mentions that women should dream big. Why only women All Indians should dream big.He also mentions that women should stop faking laughter at men's joke. He needs to understand that they are not laughing at Men's jokes but laughing at their ability of joking and sense of humor. I really did not understand the point about women dropping into clueless eye flutters etc.. Don't know what kind of women company he keeps..

KYC or DWTKYC-ORHH

http://www.firstpost.com/investing/fyi-how-to-check-your-kyc-status-online-525392.html
Please check out the above link.
 I think this KYC is big fraud. Companies under the pretext of KYC keep collection personal information about prospects/customers again and again. and keep selling the data to other companies. As a result you are hounded continuously by various companies all the times. For eg. Saving dept of the Bank asks and takes KYC filled up from you, DMAT dept of the same bank..too again asks for the similar form.
After all that service is very poor anyway..
I feel like changing it to DWTKYC-ORHH . Dont Want To Know Your Customer..Only Rip Him/Her Apart..