RSS swayamsevaks reaching out first and working in and
during natural and sometimes man-made disasters is well known. However, the
Corona disaster is a very different kind of challenge. A highly infectious
disease is around us; and people on the field are at the same risk as the
medical and sanitation workers who are trying to mitigate the sufferings of the
people. Only challenge of similar nature I recall is plague in Surat in 1993.
Luckily it was localised crises, but RSS swayamsevaks who worked in the area faced
huge challenge. When asked, one swayamsevak said, “We are not afraid, we have
taken inoculation from Dr. Hedgewar.” (The founder of RSS)
Apart from direct risk to health, second challenge is
logistics - restricted movement due to Lockdown and problem of procurement. In this restriction, it is difficult to
imagine how organisations like Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram with 800 of its workers reached
out to 2507 villages across 15 states in Bharat, serving 31279 families as on
13th April. VKA along with RSS supported 1000 North East students
spread over India with every possible help they required. Chief Minister of Arunachal Prema Khandu
appreciated all these efforts in a tweet.
It is beauty of RSS training that the initial response from
RSS swayamsevaks and workers of allied organisations were spontaneous and
localised. A swayamsevak running a very
small shop in the chawls of Ghatkopar called me up to tell that he had made a
list of 21 homes where daily wage earners did not have any ration. In Mumbai
there are many people from outside, who don’t have local ration card, so they
have no access to economic grains and government support. We collected some
funds and transferred to his account. A
trustee of a college opened up his college for community kitchen within two
days. Within a few days, he was looking after cooking and distribution of 25000
food packets every day. As days passed
by, mutual co-operation, information sharing, organising teams saw about
100,000 food packets being distributed every day to the needy. In two weeks 1.1 million food packets had been
distributed. Dry ration was also provided to 28000 families in first two weeks
and 205 bottles of blood collected.
12000 gloves to health related people, transport of patients,
accommodation for doctors and employees of major hospitals apart from food as
they could not go home, disinfection of 1500 premises are some activities
carried out. We have seen reports of RSS volunteers also feeding animals, stray
dogs and birds.
We heard story of Delhi where the teams reached out to local
aged people living alone. We saw women associates of RSS making a list of sex
workers in there and distributing food grain and essential items. There were
young swayamsevaks who were seen sweeping and cleaning quarantine facilities
and helping set up temporary hospitals in Kerala. In UP, an entire school
building was handed over for quarantine. Many other RSS related schools were
too used for people in trouble.
RSS and its associate organisations do not have enough
resources to provide the relief of massive proportions. Local temple trusts,
different Jain groups, trade bodies, caste based organisations, regional
organisations and private philanthropist trusts were approached and all of them
were prompt to respond. Out of 30 kitchens set up in Mumbai, some large
kitchens are supported by private trusts. People have sought RSS members out to
contribute to these efforts.
Quick response alertness of RSS swayamsevaks was tested to the core when man-made disaster
of thousands of migrant labourers descended on UP border bus depots. They not
only helped in crowd control, quick information passed on to the RSS units on
the highways right upto Bihar resulted in setting up of relief camps for poor
on the move, providing them resting places and guiding them to their
destinations. Medical teams have been provided with masks, sanitisers and PPE
suits. The relief work has not discriminated anyone on the basis of caste,
creed or religion.
We feel that our youth is not serious about national issues.
It is gratifying to see that nearly 30000 college students are on the field
under ABVP guidance to support the fight against Corona. They set up a call
centre and worked in 1558 locations in 796 districts serving 635,000 citizens. Vishwa
Hindu Parishad, whose strong stand on Hindu issues overshadows its work in
sewa, has done great work across Bharat. It is working in 2500 locations and
15000 of its workers on the field. They have served 150,000 families so far
with food packets and dry rations. It also set up Call centres for prompt
reach. Sewa Bharati too has set up call centres at state level.
It has been effort of the entire society and RSS has mostly
acted as a co-ordinating agency and providing logistic and man power support.
RSS and its associates are working in all the states of India. When this
data was compiled from across India on 17th April 2020, it was found
that 257,690 RSS volunteers working at 45,481 places have so far served 2.96 million
citizens. Details of the sewa can be
seen in the link provided at the end of the article by
newsbharati.com with an interactive map where one can see the details of any
state including a few photographs. It is
a commendable data presentation by Newsbharati.
There is a word that carries more significance in RSS than
in normal conversation. The word is
‘sampark’, that is ‘contact’ or ‘connect’.
When an RSS person says, we are ‘in touch’ with each other, it is not
just in touch but there is warmth and
informality about it. I redirected atleast 10 cases of people in distress
through RSS ‘sampark’ and the people received support within hours, sometimes within two hops. A
friend in Powai was worried about his father in Vile Parle (12 km distance) who
refused to move out of his home. Within two hours he was reached by volunteers.
The beauty of our social warmth is that his neighbours told the volunteers that
they need not come, they would take care! The case of an old couple in Vile
Parle, Mumbai receiving help within hours of a message seeking support was
flashed in Houston, USA. It went via 2 international and two domestic links.
This warmth and informality of ‘sampark’ and confidence that the response will
be prompt is one of the secrets of RSS outreach and strength.
We all know that it is a long battle. RSS and its associates
are aware of this and preparing for the long haul. It would be great to see
more and more people join in with resources to help our society tide over the
tough times.
Ratan Sharda,
24th April, 2020
Originally published on newsbharati.com
https://www.newsbharati.com//Encyc/2020/4/25/RSS-sewa.html
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