Coronavirus | Help that counts in a time of crisis

To inspire other residents to spare of thought for the foot-soldiers in their midst, The Hindu Downtown is compiling lists of individuals and residents welfare associations that seek to support daily wage-earners at this hour. If you know of such ‘COVID-19 Santas’, share their details with us

They are an invisible workforce — plumbers, electricians and odd-jobs men and women: They are hardly remembered beyond the time they fix somthing around home; and they will again spring to mind only when something else goes out of whack.

Nesamani Nagar Residents’ Welfare Association in Perumbakkam is breaking this pattern of self-centredness by remembering such people in this moment of crisis, and offering them cash incentives, as a mark of gratitutide for what they have done so far for the residents of the neighbourhood.

N. K. Raja, president, Nesamani Nagar Residents’ Welfare Association, Perumbakkam, provides a list of the foot-soldiers who will receive a cash incentive — Ayyappan, plumber; Ranjith and Nagalingam, electricians; Chellappa and Sargunam, watermen; Karthik, Ethiraj, Jayaseelan and Mari, conservancy staff, Manbahadur, a security guard, and Munuswamy, a milk-vendor.

“That is not all. They will be honoured at a function scheduled to be held after April 15,” says N. K. Raja.

One-month’s provision

This is multiplier effect at work. One man decided to share a small part of his resources with those who are struggling to meet ends meet; and this thought now seems set to galvanise a neighburhood into a form of relief work.

On March 31, K. Sanjaya Kumar, a resident of Jain Nagar, Hasthinapuram, distributed one-month’s essential commodities (provisions) to ten families in Chromepet and Hastinaouram that depend on daily-earnings to run their lives. The wage-earners in most of these families are painters and cooks.

The provisions include rice, toor dal, oil, mustard, ‘jeera’, fenugreek, chilly and turmeric powder, onions, brinjals, raddish, biscuits and puffed rice packets.

Taking note of this act of mercy, Jain Nagar Residents Welfare Association, Hasthinapuram, and Federation of Civic and Welfare Association of Pallavaram (FCWAP) have issued a call to residents to make similar contributions, and also have a plan to support such community initiatives.

(You may write in to us about similar initiatives at downtownfeedback@thehindu.co.in)