Meet 'faceless' volunteers of Shaheen Bagh

New Delhi: Its almost 9 pm at night and Raza is standing at the entrance of a foot over bridge at Shaheen Bagh, his job is to stop people from getting on to the foot over the bridge for clicking pictures or making videos. The gate of the foot-over bridge is also closed using nylon ropes with a little scope to pass through.

He and many other volunteers are carefully seen dealing with a mob of teenagers and convincing them not to go to the foot over bridge.

"We are only allowing journalists to go upstairs after checking their identity cards. It is important that only those go to the bridge who have genuine work to do. Safety of protesters is our prominence. We can't allow overcrowding on the bride," Raza said.

Raza, is an IT professional in a Noida company and after he returns he volunteers for work of his liking at Shaheen Bagh. He is amongst many who opt for one or the other work in the protest.

"It gets hard when we have to control huge crowd especially on Saturdays and Sundays or when a prominent speaker is coming. We make a human chain to streamline the queue as children and women too stand on the left-hand side of the stage near the showrooms," Akhter, who is an architect said.

Volunteers are also seen distributing food items, tea and samosas amongst protesters. Sometimes, a group of men donate to buy food items but then fall short of manpower to distribute it to protesters. Soon, the volunteers come to their rescue and help them.

"We are also managing the stage entrance. Since many want to get close to the stage, we have to be strict at times to say 'No' but we have to do this without picking up a fight. It is a 24 hour process, we change shifts and manage accordingly," said a volunteer who did not want to be named.

Some with a good voice are seen roaming with a mike asking the protesters to move in line especially at places where the graffitis on roads are made. The volunteers who don't have a particular face disperse only to be replaced by another set of 'faceless' volunteers at Shaheen Bagh.