Self volunteers shed rays of hope amid gloom of pandemic

NEW DELHI: They were there during the Delhi riots — they provided relief to the victims not just by providing them food and ration — but also helped them to restart their lost business. They are ordinary people with common interest "to help".

Ever since then, the civil society is on roads helping and many of them are women. Since the lockdown began, they used small WhatsApp and Facebook groups to connect with each other and collect relief material for the poor and the stranded.

Hana Mohsin Khan, a pilot has been working for the north-east riot victims and has ensured that the poor families don't face any crises amid the lockdown.

"Visuals haunt me and there is always an undercurrent of anxiety. I wake up and for some minutes I don't remember and I feel happy and then it all rushes in. I check my phone for ration updates. The people who have no food to eat haunt me,"

Hana said.

Another Delhi based woman Suboohi is working hard to gather online help for the poor migrants and north-east riot affected victims. She has been sending SOS for the people in distress on Twitter to gather help. From arranging ration to facilitating the travel for poor migrants to their hometown, she has been quite active.

Another woman Umme Kulsoom, who has been active in raising funds for the poor and the needy says: "No one should sleep hungry, we are a team of three working everyday and trying to whatever possible within our reach."

After a devastating fire broke out in Tughlakabad this week in which many families living in the shanties were rendered homeless, Avani Gupta and Khushboo Khan have been quite instrumental in arranging sanitary pads, mosquito repellents, soaps and even kitchen utensils for the victims. Avani also arranged food for migrants on the railway stations.