A group of doctors and lawyers associated with the non-profit ‘Covid Care Network’ in West Bengal launched a legal aid service for family members of COVID-19 victims on the occasion of the International Human Rights Day here on Friday. The aid will be provided free of cost to people who lost family members in the pandemic
Abhijeet Chowdhury, a noted physician and advisor on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s global advisory board, is the chief mentor of the Covid Care Network along with advocate at the Calcutta High Court Arindam Das. Both were among those who launched the service at an event at the Press Club in Kolkata.
Two helpline numbers (7044041013 and 7044041014) have been provided for callers. Partha Sarathi Mukherjee, another key member of the network, said that earlier this year, on January 30, the network had launched the “National Covid Memorial” (www.nationalcovidmemorial.in) as a virtual epitaph to people who died during the pandemic. He pointed out that not only has the pandemic taken away family members, there were several reports from different corners of the State on children being left without parents.
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Speaking at the launch of the legal aid initiative, Dr. Chowdhury, who is also a public health expert, said that the idea was to multiply the number of people associated with the legal aid network and to the take the services beyond West Bengal. Emphasising that it’s the responsibility of society to stand by families who lost their near and dear ones to the pandemic, he said the network was in talks with lawyers of the Supreme Court of India and Bar Associations to expand the ambit of the legal aid.
About 4.74 lakh people have died due to COVID-19 in India; the number of deaths in West Bengal has crossed 19,500.