Officers and gentlemen to the aid of the poor in TN
The uncertainty about the “progress” of the Covid-19 curve forced the State administration to extend the total lockdown till June 7. Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin, who had declared his opposition to any kind of lockdown during his days as the Leader of the Opposition has conceded to the request of the high power committee for the continuation of the lockdown only because of the unpredictable nature of the virus causing the pandemic. While Chief Minister Stalin’s opposition to the lockdown is attributed to his apprehension about the poorer sections of society, many people and institutions in the State are on a mission to feed the less privileged affected by the pandemic.
Every morning, heavy trucks belonging to Madras Regimental Centre, Wellington, set out on their trip to the hitherto unexplored regions in the High Ranges in search of poor people to provide them “two square meals” a day.
The soldiers, popularly known as Thambis (Tamil for brothers) carry food packets with steaming idli, vada, sambar, chutney and lunch that consists of rice and half a dozen vegetable curries.
“This is in sync with our motto ‘Har Kaam Desh Ke Naam’. We provide assistance in the form of cooked food packets to the poor daily wage earners, labourers and to the needy in the far-flung areas of the Nilgiris district,” said a MRC Wellington spokesperson.
These villagers are the ones who are deprived of their livelihood and daily income because of Covid-19 and the lockdown. The Thambis get the satisfaction of their life when they see the smiling faces of these poor village folk, said the spokesman.
In the adjoining district of Tirupur, it is a homemaker Indira Sundaram who has earned the goodwill of the people by her selfless services. Everyday she sets out on her own with food packets in search of the poor and needy and feeds more than 500 households in the city.
“This is all I could do. I get the food cooked in my house itself with the help of a caterer. Of late many citizens have come forward offering financial assistance in this mission to provide food to the people,” said Sundaram.
Tirupur an industrial hub and also the knitwear capital of India has many migrant labourers from different States who have been affected by the lockdown. In Erode district, a school principal by the name of Clement Premkumar moves around in a cart with food packets. When he launched the free meals for the poor people, he was alone in the venture. Seeing this 44-year-old man’s initiative, others too joined his bandwagon.
Pandemic may take time to subside. But the Thambis of MRC, Indira Sundaram, Clement Premkumar and hundreds like them would ensure that no starvation deaths take place in Tamil Nadu.