Companions in Adversity

This Corona virus pandemic has brought harsh difficulties and challenges before the society. Be it the funeral of people dying of COVID-19 or availability of food for the kith & kin of patients admitted to hospitals.  Helpless people found Swayamsevaks of the RSS standing by them in these most difficult moments of their lives, who toiled to give extra breaths to the patients by arranging oxygen or brought food to their distressed family members outside government hospitals.   

It is a story of Akash who brought his seriously ill COVID-19 infected father Subodh Sharma to admit in the largest govt. hospital in Ranchi, 126 kms away from Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. Akash was walking lane after lane in Ranchi in search of food. Due to lockdown from 22 April 2021, neither shops nor restaurants were open after 2.00 pm. Bread and sattu that he had brought with him had already exhausted long ago. He somehow called Ranchi Mahanagar helpline of RSS. Similar was the problem with many accompanying patients admitted in hospital. RSS Vibhag Seva Pramukh, Kanhaiyyaji, learnt about this and immediately coordinated supply of food packets to these family members including Akash. Swayamsevaks distributed 150-200 food packets every day. Similarly, food packets were also distributed by the swayamsevaks to the needy people waiting outside Govt. hospitals, in Rajouri, Kishtwad, Doda, and Bilwad in Jammu & Kashmir .

Recently, we read stories of peoples’ struggle for arranging oxygen for their relatives having difficulty in breathing due to hypoxemia. Here is another true story: on 27th April 2021, national president of Sewa Bharati, Pannalalji Bhansali, received a phone call from Rahiti Roy in Kolkata, imploring him to save his younger sister Mahua in Delhi. Mahua, her husband and their very small daughter all were infected with COVID. Mahua was particularly serious with her oxygen level dropping to 67. She urgently required oxygen to stay alive. Delhi was then facing acute shortage of oxygen. Sewa Bharati swayamsevaks somehow managed to arrange one oxygen cylinder within two hours at her residence in Kalkaji which saved her that night. 15 days later, she returned from hospital a corona winner. 

When the hollowness of relations is becoming obvious in these tough and trying times, courage of some patriotic individuals is admirable. Sewa Bharati swayamsevak Puthen Purukkal in Kothmangalam, Kerala, spotted an old man coughing, sneezing and running high fever on a roadside. Perhaps he was left there to die. Puthen, with his colleagues, immediately took the old man to the taluka hospital where the old man tested positive for Covid-19. Puthen and his colleagues took care of the man till he recovered and was discharged. Some other such swayamsevaks took care of a wounded labourer Santosh who they found near Rain Basera of new bus stand, in Ramgarh.

Talking about figures, Organising Secretary, National Sewa Bharati, Sudhirji said, “Sewa Bharati is running 303 ambulances, 1242 counselling centers, 3770 helplines, and 2904 vaccination centers across the country in addition to Covid care centers in 287 cities. Not only this, doctors’ helpline is working round the clock along with kadha distribution, plasma donation and arranging funerals of persons dying of Covid”. 

Second wave of Covid affected villages more than the cities. Not surprising then that the Sewa Bharati swayamsevaks rushed to the nearby villages wearing PPE kits to save lives there. Shravanji the Vibhag Pracharak of RSS informed that 24 swayamsevaks of RSS including Jitendra Patel, Praveen Singh Dikhit, Harish Sharma, Sheilendraji and Prasannjit have undergone training and then went on to villages for Screening and RTPCR tests. In all 12villages, 30 sevabastis and 8 colonies were covered. More than 5000 persons were screened in this campaign which went on for 15 days.