IITian helps Madhubani villagers gear up to tackle 3rd Covid wave

Taught a cold lesson by the helplessness wrought by the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, a group of young men and women have brought the warmth of Covid-care comfort in their village in Madhubani district. With help from an IITian from their parts and his crowd-sourcing network of friends spread out globally, this youthful group is now preparing, should that happen, to meet the third wave of the pandemic with the resilience of home-spun, community-driven action.
“When three persons from one family died in Nabtole village, we realised that death is knocking at every door,” Ram Bahadur Choudhary, mukhiya of Sarisab-Pahi (paschim) panchayat told this newspaper.A few journalists belonging to our area put us in touch with Sanjay Jha in Mumbai, he added.

An IIT-Kharagpur alumnus, Jha too was gripped with worry from news reaching him from relatives in Madhubani and Darbhanga. “My sister got infected in Madhubani and even an Oximeter could not be found in the local market,” Jha, a director at Collateral Medical in Mumbai, one of India’s largest importers and distributors of medical equipment, told this newspaper over phone.

“Clearly, people were deprived and I felt the urgency to reach out. Fortunately, friends and relatives told me about the Ayachi Nagar Yuva Sangathan at Sarisab-Pahi, epicentre of a hub of over two dozen villages,” he recalled, adding, “A group of dedicated youth was identified and I immediately contacted my IITian friends and also fellow-alumni of The INSEAD Business School (France). Friends based in the US, UK, France, Singapore and Dubai chipped in. Many non-resident Biharis too joined in.”

Vicky Mandal (24) is one among two scores of youth who had been running awareness, education, plantation and blood donation drives. “Many non-resident villagers also donated money to help us begin a medical assistance drive for Covid patients. We arranged ambulances, hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and blood for patients in Darbhanga and Madhubani hospitals,” he said.
For Choudhary, the village head and mentor to the youth volunteers, it did not help that the primary health centre, though having received a fresh coat of paint at the launch of the Ayushman Bharat scheme years ago, lay padlocked. “After many years, a doctor was finally posted here in March. But within a fortnight, he was transferred to the Covid care centre at Rampatti, 30km away,” he rued. “ If the pandemic hits us with a third wave, our youth volunteers will only step up efforts to save our village folk,” Choudhary added.
“There was no testing and many villagers showed Covid symptoms. We are now launching a door-to-door campaign to thermal scan all apart from motivating villagers to get vaccinated,” Choudhary said.
Jha (45), whose professional career began with GE Medical in San Fransisco before returning home, meanwhile, shipped four oxygen concentrators, 20 thermal scanners, 30 oxymeters, 20 PPE kits and 30 sanitizer bottles.
“We have today set up a four-bed facility supported with oxygen concentrators,” Vicky Mandal said on Wednesday, adding, “Sanjay Jha sir will get our volunteers trained to operate the concentrators on Thursday.”
“Our service engineers will impart online training to the young volunteers of Sarisab-Pahi,” Jha said, adding, “We will send more equipment if the need arises. I am happy to find this group of young students in Sarisab-Pahi whose selfless dedication brings hope in these dark times.”