Every day, three residents of Venketachalam Nagar in Thirumullaivoyal, take a walk through the locality, separately and at a pre-set hour, covering all streets, to inquire from residents, especially senior citizens without any support system, if they are finding any difficulty accessing essential items such as groceries and milk.
An initiative of Venketachalam Nagar Residents Welfare Association, it supplements the solicitous inquiries of this nature that already happen on the Association’s WhatsApp group. This exercise is being carried out for those residents who may not be part of the WhatsApp group, be unable to communicate through technological devices. It is primarily aimed at benefiting senior citizens, as many of them are not tech-savvy.
There are 18 streets in Venketachalam Nagar, and around 650 households.
So, two three-member teams fan into the neighbourhood, one in the morning and the other in the evening. Each member in the three-member team covers six streets.
Data about the total number of senior citizens in the locality and their health status have also been collected by the residents’ association, so that it would be easy to make the right decisions during an emergency.
“The small team of residents divide the streets in the neighbourhood among themselves during the daily patrol. We strictly follow social distancing while carrying out this work," says V. Giri Ravanan, secretary, Venketachalam Nagar Residents Welfare Association.
