The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will be conducting a computer-based test to fill thirteen categories of posts.
Find important details below:
FSSAI Test: Important Dates and Details
Exam dates: From 1 August to 9 August 2020.
Some of the positions include Deputy Manager, IT Assistant, Hindi Translator, Administrative Officer, Assistant Director (Tech), Technical Officer, Central Food Safety Officer, Assistant, and Personal Assistant.
Test Centres include Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati.
Test Centre will be Delhi for candidates appearing for the positions of Assistant Director, Administrative Officer, Deputy Manager, Jr Assistant Grade-1, Hindi Translator, Assistant Manager (IT), IT Assistant, Assistant Manager.
The date for applying for the positions has been extended and will now close on 12 June 2020. The notice for the extension of the date can be viewed here.
The initial deputation period will be for three years, which can be extended on the basis of the performance of the candidate.
Qualification
FSSAI Recruiting – Apply now!
Candidates should have a degree or an equivalent from a recognised Board/ University/ Institution.
A detailed qualification requirement has been posted along with the advertisement copy here.
After registering, an email will be sent to the registered email address containing the password.
An application can be modified multiple times and only the latest changes will be stored.
No modification is permissible after the final submission of the application.
Email sent out could, at times, be delayed or can be in your spam folder. Check there as well.
In case you require any assistance, you can e-mail at: recruitment.fssai@gmail.com. Do remember to mention your application id details while sending a query mail.
For many Mumbaikars, Sonchampa has become a favourite flower for religious rituals and daily prayers. What usually sells at Rs 100 for 100 flowers in the Dadar flower market, attracts a price of Rs 700 during the 11-day festival of Ganesh Chaturthi! The same happens during the wedding season and the Navratri festival.
It was 64-year-old flower grower Robert D’Britto who introduced Mumbai to the golden-yellow flower with a heady scent. He discontinued his studies at a polytechnic due to his father’s illness. Like many others, he had been cultivating Mogra for decades.
“The Mogra crop experienced a severe pest problem in 1998-99, and I switched to Sonchafa after studying its potential,” informs D’Britto as we meet in his wadi, which also accommodates his one-storied house. “Two decades ago, Mogra (Jasminum sambac) was oppular among worshippers to offer to their favourite deity, be it at Siddhi Vinayak or the Lalbaugcha Raja.”
But now, it’s the eleven-petalled and inverted lance-shaped Sonchafa, as Mumbaikars prefer to call the Magnolia champaka.
The search of Sonchafa saplings led D’Britto to Kudal-based Velankar Nursery from where he sourced 225 of them, planting them on a 30-guntha plot (equal to 30,000 sq ft) in Satpale village in Vasai taluka.
A medium climbing shrub of 8-10 ft, Sonchafa produces greenish flowers that fade to yellow, and are extremely fragrant. Once picked, they last long and retain their scent for days if kept in water. When young, this climber grows like a regular shrub, but starts to vine at 5-6 ft. Its irrigation needs are minimal, once in four days.
“When I introduced Mogra sellers to Sonchafa, they had neither heard of, nor seen such a flower; and so for weeks, I offered it to them for free as an incentive,” says D’Britto. “I even picked up Tamil to converse with the flower sellers. Soon, demand grew as its fragrance lasted days, unlike that of other flowers.”
Looking at the popularity of the newly-introduced flower, farmers in neighbouring villages started uprooting their Mogra bushes and planted Sonchafa.
D’Britto readying the packs to be sent to Dadar flower market
Presently, close to 500 families grow Sonchafa in Vasai and Virar—all assisted and guided by D’Britto, a recipient of the prestigious Vasantrao Naik Agriculture Award in 2012. The award was named after the longest-serving Chief Minister of Maharashtra, and came with a cash award of Rs 25,000; it recognises farmers who have excelled by their innovative practices, use of new techniques, increase in production volumes etc.
D’Britto’s day begins early with the plucking of flowers. “Beginning my day in a fragrant garden gives me a heady feeling and a priceless experience,” says D’Britto.
Picked and packed in poly bags in batches of 100, the flowers are ready for their journey to Mumbai. On average, about 10,000-11,000 flowers leave D’Britto’s garden each day, with the bags being reused several times.
Sonchafa flowers 365 days a year, and from March to October, each shrub offers 150-200 flowers. During the winter months, flowering witnesses a slight drop. However, it is easy to grow when allowed to spread horizontally; this makes it easier to reach and pick the flowers, says D’Britto, who uses powdered cow dung to fertilise his plants.
“The workers take the 9.09 am Churchgate local from Virar and reach Dadar flower market by 10.45 am,” says D’Britto, who makes close to Rs 75,000 a month, and nearly Rs 9 lakh a year, post the expenses.
How did COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown affect him?
In the initial fortnight of lockdown, D’Britto suffered losses as he was unable to arrange for transport to take the flowers to the market, which was 58 km away. This meant letting the flowers remain unplucked.
But, being a pioneer, he found a solution. He elaborates, “Ever since the suburban local trains stopped plying, we have been taking the flowers in our vehicle.”
Presently, over 25 villages in Vasai taluka, namely Jalodi, Agashi, Nala, Rajouri, Navapur, Motekoria and others specialise in irrigating Sonchafa plants using sprinklers.
According to Sylvester F Miranda (65), Vasai taluka has emerged as a Sonchafa floriculture hub, where growers have prospered due to the proximity of the market. He is a part-time farmer in Adla village and former Vice-Principal of Uttan-based St Joseph High School and Junior College.
For those who want to take up Sonchafa farming, D’Britto advises, “It can be grown in any soil where water doesn’t stand. But before going for planting, you need to develop a market for its flowers, and more importantly, wait two years for the plants to flower.”
Picture this: The cuckoo bird sings on the mango tree as the wind spreads the sweet smell of the freshly grown fruit, jackfruits call out to their takers, and coconut water is ready to beat the heat. Not just that, tulsi (Holy Basil), giloy (Tinospora Cordifolia), ardusi (Vasaka) and aloe vera do the serious talking for cures.
Looks like the typical setup of a farm, but guess what, this is a cosy residential society in the suburbs of Aamchi Mumbai.
This is the story of Kanchan Nalanda CHS Ltd, a housing society that has around 41 big trees, including jamun (java plum), mango, Ashoka, Gulmohar, drumstick (moringa), neem, coconut and jackfruit.
“We produce around 600 coconuts, 800-900 mangoes, 30-40 kg jamun and jackfruit each year,” shares Kamal Saboo. He’s a senior resident, active in the gardening and cleanliness initiatives of the society. He adds that these are equally distributed among the residents of 86 flats.
The society recently undertook coconut plucking, providing around 5-6 coconuts to each flat.
(L) An 80-year-old participating in the plantation activities. (R) The coconuts collected for distribution
Health and well-being have taken centre stage due to COVID-19, and the residents of this Mumbai suburban society are reaping the benefits of their efforts.
However, there was a time when the society had a tiny area under cultivation and struggled to keep the trees and plants flourishing, with depleting soil health. Many believe that it was the magic of the in-house organic manure that led to the flourishing landscape.
“It all started in 2016 when we consciously decided to stop the air pollution caused by the burning of dry tree leaves collected in the society. And we commissioned a bio-compost pit in the premises, wherein dry leaves were converted into organic manure,” explains Rashmi Tak, chairperson of the society.
She adds that they were quick enough to adopt garbage segregation to the full support of the residents. “In 2017, we took up the segregation, and I am happy to share that our residents have been diligently following it.”
Suhas Vaidya, a senior member, played an instrumental role in promoting the compost pit and community gardening. Each flat is provided with two bins for wet and dry waste. Once collected, wet waste is converted into manure at the society’s bio-compost pit, which is managed by a professional agency.
Today, they have abundant organic manure and use it for community gardening within the premises.
“We took up community gardening to maintain cleanliness in the building and requested residents to bring down the plantation at their respective flats to the common garden area,” she adds.
(L) Jackfruit tree. (R) A youngster with the new addition in the garden–pudina and tomato.
The initiative also provided residents with an opportunity to engage with each other and share knowledge about various medicinal plants. They relish coconuts, mangoes, guavas, papayas, jackfruits, jamuns, bananas, lemons and lemons at their very own garden. The newest additions to the garden are pudina (mint), turmeric, pomegranate, native gooseberry and tomato.
Calcutta paan (betel leaf) is the showstopper that hides among the bushes and is a delicacy. While it is eaten for its taste and digestive benefits, a senior resident in the society pointed out its benefits in curing throat infections. “Just clean the leaf with water and chew it… your cough will vanish,” she smiles.
The society has also been popular for papaya leaves that are used as a cure for dengue fever. Ms Tak shares that the medicinal plant ardusi is very helpful in curing cough.
Interestingly, the plantation has been done by the residents with their limited knowledge, alongside a gardener. There has been no help from an agri expert on the kind of plants to grow.
“We are the modern farmers of Nalanda,” chuckles Darshan Mehrotra, a young resident of the society. He continues, “I think we are making good use of our building area with plants, trees, and flowers all around. It is a good way to make our children connect with nature in a cosmopolitan city. This is a rarity in big cities.”
(L) Morning plucking of lemons from the tree in the garden. (R) Jamun tree
During the lockdown, their daily needs for curry leaves, tulsi, flowers and lemons were met by the community garden.
They have also conducted workshops with the municipal corporation on garbage segregation and bio-composting which saw participation from other housing societies in the city. These efforts were recognised by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (P South Ward) with a certificate under the Zero-Waste Campaign in 2017.
“We aim to make the environment pollution-free with eco-friendly practices. And we are happy to share our experience and learning with other societies,” says Archana Saboo, the secretary.
The society has set an example for others. What looked like an uphill task has become a success story, bearing fruits of Swachta and Aarogya!
(Written by Shweta Bhanot and Edited by Shruti Singhal)
The news of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s tragic death by suicide led to a massive outpouring of grief and sadness from Indians of all hues.
Sushant wasn’t your ‘average’ film celebrity. Young and dynamic, with no ‘godfathers’ in the industry, he represented far more than his 11 released films indicated.
From his passion for the sciences to his charitable donations, to even small things like his habit of posting humble replies to regular comments on social media platforms like Instagram—he established a deeply personal connection with his fans.
However, amid all the deeply-felt tributes, many were appalled by the way our mainstream media, particularly TV channels, covered the news—pointing out that it was outright predatory and deeply inconsiderate.
And they were right. Most channels did not use the proper terminology—framing Sushant’s death as ‘committed suicide’ rather than the appropriate ‘died by suicide’.
Many ran baseless tickers suggesting that Sushant somehow ‘failed’ as a person. Others showcased unverified details speculating about the cause. And some even harassed his loved ones in their time of grief.
One must ask whether is it good for the media to cover celebrity suicides with so much fanfare – ignoring the fact that a celeb is also a person, and an influencer?
Although there isn’t any data specifically for India, there are enough studies to indicate around the world to suggest a spike in suicide rates following a celebrity suicide. When comedian Robin Williams died in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States, there was an almost 10% increase in suicide, particularly among middle-aged men.
Speaking to The Better India, Tejas Shah, a Mumbai-based clinical psychologist, who practices at Healing Studio and conducts regular suicide prevention workshops across the city, believes that celebrity suicides shouldn’t be covered with such fanfare. He argues that the media must show more considerable restraint and be more responsible and ethical.
“The way the media has covered the recent suicide of film star Sushant Singh Rajput has been poor. They have intruded on the privacy of family members and shoved their mics on their faces when grieving. His death is portrayed as a psychological drama unfolding from one moment to another. What happens as a result is that it causes distress in society as well. You must have heard about the ‘copycat suicide’ phenomenon, and there are statistics to suggest whenever a celebrity dies by suicide, the suicide rates go up,” notes Tejas.
“For people suffering from mental health illnesses and contemplating suicide, such a death is a deeply triggering event. This sort of idealisation often gives ordinary fans or those triggered by the events the real option of suicide, which sometimes results in copycat episodes. In showing the methodology or how the suicide happened in detail, the media inadvertently opens up possibilities for another person to take similar steps,” he says.
Of course, the media is going to report the news, facts, and the story itself. But at the same time, it can take responsibility in not splashing triggering images either online, TV or broadsheet.
“I have seen media houses showing a rope knot, bloody knife, syringes or chemical cans. These are deeply triggering images. They must be avoided because it gives people ideas to those already contemplating suicide. Some precaution must be maintained,” adds Tejas.
In an illuminating thread on Twitter, the Centre for Mental Law & Policy, a Pune-based think tank laid down seven key guidelines on how the media should cover celebrity suicides:
1. Don’t promote suicide stories by placing them in the front pages of the newspaper or as a lead item for broadcast media.
2. Don’t give details about the method or location of any suicide death or attempt.
3. Suicide notes, text messages, social media posts, and emails of the deceased person and/or their family members should not be published.
4. Don’t speculate. Verify your facts from multiple sources when the reasons for a suicide death or attempt are not immediately clear.
5. Don’t reveal personal details about family members, the deceased person, or any person who has attempted suicide without their informed consent.
6. Don’t write of suicide deaths/attempts as horrific, unfortunate events. Open up your story by focusing on the celebrity’s life and their contribution to society.
7. Suicide is a largely preventable public health problem. There are several counselling services and helplines working across the country for this cause. Include these resources in your story/report.
Getting Help
Speaking to The Better India, an online content creator based out of New Delhi talks about how she seriously contemplated suicide after her boyfriend for six years abruptly broke up their engagement. She had joined a creators group online a couple of months back and vented her feelings there.
In response, she received 500 messages from “amazing men and women” who are part of a larger online community.
“They talked me out of self-harm, gave me tips, made me realise why I am better off without him and helped me see that there were so many people going through similar situations because of the lockdown. They saved my life,” she says.
Reaching out can change a life—yours or someone else’s.
THREAD. Let me tell you abt some myths around #suicide & how you can save lives. #suicideprevention
MYTH 1: Talking about suicide is a bad idea, as it may be seen as encouragement
FALSE. Rather than encouraging suicide, talking openly helps prevent suicide. 1/n
Mumbai: I Call- 022-25521111 (Monday to Saturday, 8 am to 10 pm), ASRA- 022-27546669,
The Samaritans Mumbai: 8422984528/842984529/8422984530 (5 pm to 8 pm on all days)
“Shut the water tap, don’t let water flow so easily – your money will flow the same way,” admonished my grandmother often – a true believer in water conservation. Chennai saw a large part of my growing up years, with memories of scorching summers accompanied by acute water shortage. I still recall my parents staying up late into the night, waiting for the water tanker.
Our elders always taught us to be prudent in our usage of water. Growing up like that, saving water has become second nature to my brother and me.
Letting RO water outlet into a bucket for mopping the floors, making ten-minutes showers mandatory, reusing AC water for my plants – I follow these tips religiously.
Always curious and eager to know other water conversation techniques, I got in touch with three ladies – Delhi’s Rupali Bajpai Sheryari, Gurugram-based Vidhya Venkat and Bayiravi Mani Mangoankar from Mumbai.
These women have found interesting ways to conserve water in their homes, on an average, 80 litres per day! And interestingly, the methods that these environmentally-conscious ladies follow are almost the same.
Let’s take a look.
Tackling Bathrooms – The Water Guzzler in the House
“For several years now, I have been saving at least 100 litres of water each day. And this I accomplish by making small changes to my routine,” says Rupali who lives in Delhi.
Rupali is exceptionally conscious of her carbon footprint.
She set the tone of our conversation with, “I know that my every action has the potential to impact the environment adversely. It makes me super conscious about everything I do.”
Our discussion became much smoother after this, flowing into how small steps at home can make a difference to the environment.
Surround yourself with greens.
“We flush only thrice in a day,” she laughs at my nonplussed face. “I mean, we use the toilet flush thrice, otherwise the rest of the time, we use the water collected in the bucket from the kitchen or the air conditioners to flush.”
On a lighter vein Rupali shares, “If I could, I would like to set up a large kiddie pool in the bathroom and every time we shower, collect that water also and use it effectively around the house. But it did not work out for me,” she chuckles heartily.
Mumbai’s Bayiravi has also been making some tweaks to her family’s routine, which helps with water conservation. What’s also interesting is how she manages that with her more than 70 plants.
For her, the use of a bucket to bathe is non-negotiable. “Even then, each adult uses about ten mugs of water, while my 6-year-old son gets to use four mugs for his bath. On the rare occasion, he gets ten mugs – it’s like a treat for him,” laughs the entrepreneur.
Furthermore, Bayiravi says that she uses the leftover water from the bath to flush the toilet.
After the Bathroom – We tackle Water Waste in the Kitchens
Water collection techniques for the kitchen.
“When I started being conscious of the water usage in my house, the first step I took was to place a large pot in my sink,” says Rupali. I ask her how that helps and with the eagerness of a child, she explains, “The pot collects all the water from washing vegetables, hands and even utensils. This water is then used to water plants and wash the balcony.”
On an average Rupali manages to collect about two buckets in this manner and that is approximately 40 litres of water saved right there.
In Gurugram, Vidhya, an artist, is yet another conscientious individual who has been finding ways of conserving water and reusing it. She collects the wastewater from air conditioners in buckets and drums placed all over the house. Nothing goes waste here, “The water is used for mopping the house, watering my plants, and even cleaning the bathrooms,” shares Vidhya.
Reusing Water from RO Water Purifying Systems
RO Water collection drum.
Most households now have an RO purifying system. While it helps in ensuring we consume water free of any impurities, the purification process leads to almost three times the wastage of water than is purified.
Is there a way in which we can reuse the wastewater?
“I ensure that once the green light on the RO starts flickering, I turn off the machine. I then refill it only when the water quantity decreases. We can curtail unnecessary wastage of water,” says Vidhya.
All three ladies including yours truly are using the water from the RO for cleaning the floors, flushing toilets, washing cars and watering plants.
Some of the indoor plants at Bayiravi’s home.
“All it requires are certain tweaks in our daily lives. It was a tad bit difficult in the beginning, especially to explain to the house helps why we needed to be prudent and save water. Now they are slowly making other households they work at also change their ways,” says Vidhya.
Where Rupali saves 100 litres of water each day, Bayiravi and Vidhya save close to 80 litres of water daily.
So what are you waiting for? Start collecting buckets; there is a lot of water to be saved!
The collective memory of this nation will forever be seared with scarring images of migrant workers during the COVID-10 pandemic. That of lakhs of human beings finding their way home – stumbling with exhaustion, falling with hunger. Though the unforgiving sun bore heavily down on them, what burnt their soul was the apathy that many fellow beings showed.
Fortunately, for each unmoving heart, several helping hands reached forward to pull these hapless people back up on their feet.
And among them were you. Our readers, who overwhelmed us with your open-heartedness.
Over two months ago, The Better India launched – ‘Better Together’ – a fundraising campaign to support civil service officers across the country who are helping migrant labourers, daily wage earners and health workers during the pandemic-induced restrictions and aftermath.
The campaign saw an unprecedented response from our readers who kept up the momentum of our efforts.
Today, thanks to all of you, we have raised about Rs. 40 lakh for #BetterTogether.
While things start normalising and people start going back to their pre-lockdown routines — we still need to continue helping and reaching out. Join The Better India’s “BETTER TOGETHER” initiative. Help wage earners on a daily basis, help migrant workers reach home safely, and help frontline workers get access to essentials.
After almost three months of on-ground relief work spurred from the campaign, we caught up with the five civil service officers who joined hands with us to distribute food kits and emergency supplies to the needy.
We talked to them about their experience and their learnings. We wanted to understand from them what more is still needed on the ground. And why, while things start normalising and people start going back to their pre-lockdown routines — it is not yet time to stop helping and reaching out. Here’s what they had to say.
1. “I was approached by a differently-abled man who asked me for an alternate employment option instead of help.”
The Deputy Commissioner of East Garo Hills, Meghalaya, IAS Swapnil Tembe has been providing food rations to poor families, including few migrant workers in Assam.
“The starting point of my relief work was when I was approached by a specially-abled man who asked me for an alternate employment option instead of help. And it was only when I visited his home, I realised that many of his family members were also differently-abled. They were struggling to make ends meet. Seeing his sense of independence and courage to get through this crisis motivated me to join hands with NGOs to identify those who were going through similar situations,” says Tembe.
“Many of the labourers I spoke with are the sole supporters in their family out of which only some had the necessary documents to enroll for the government support schemes. That’s where our help counts. Although it’s just a drop in the ocean, it can make a huge difference to one person,” he adds.
With the support of local self-help groups like Achik Chadambe, over 50 youth volunteers, and NSS cadets, Tambe was able to coordinate the on-ground distribution of necessities like rice, pulses and salt.
So far, the IAS officer has been able to donate kits consisting of 5 kg of rice, 2-3 kgs of pulses and 1 kg of salt to over 2,000 households in the span of these three months. He and his team are now trying to work toward setting up a plan to help with skill development for the migrant labourers who have returned to Meghalaya from other parts of the country.
2. “His phone screen was broken so he was unable to retrieve our contact and call us back. So he just kept hoping that one of us would reach out to him again.”
The Deputy Income Tax Commissioner of Mumbai, Dr Megha Bhargava has been working non-stop since the lockdown in collaboration with her NGO Samarpan, department officials, the Mumbai Police and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
“A few weeks into the lockdown, the situation of the migrant labourers and the daily wage workers had gotten so bad that they started selling off their belongings. In fact, during one of our visits to Dharavi, we came across a man who was surviving on biscuits. We took down his details and gave him our contact information so that he could give us his exact location. But even after two hours, we didn’t get a response from his side. On calling him up, he told us that as his phone screen had broken, he was unable to retrieve our contact number. This was truly a heart-wrenching experience,” explains Dr Bharghava.
“Several experiences like these have left me in shock over these three months. Recently, a migrant worker’s wife had given birth, and both the mother and child were tested positive for COVID-19. These are all situations in which I’ve felt completely helpless. But we must all do everything we can to overcome this crisis,” she adds.
Dr Bhargava has so far distributed 1,000 bottles of hand sanitiser and over 1,300 face masks to the police personnel deployed on the ground.
She has also distributed 28,700 dry ration kits consisting of 5 kg of flour, 3 kg of rice, 3 kg of pulses (1 kg each of Masoor, Chana and Black Chana), 1 kg Sugar, 1 ltr cooking oil, 1 kg salt and 200 gms each of turmeric, chilli, coriander and basic ground spices. This in addition to 5,57000 cooked meals to families in need.
Besides this, she has also provided 25,000 menstrual hygiene kits to many women in the Dharavi slums.
“I’ve realised that during crises like these women’s health and hygiene takes a back seat when everyone is just fighting for basic needs like food. We’ve decided to take up this issue as well,” she explains.
Her team is also distributing hygiene kits and prepared food to migrant labourers who are going back home, so that their train journeys are safe.
3. “Imagine a situation where you have only water from the borewell for survival — that’s what we first saw when we started out with the relief work.”
Nishant K, Joint Commissioner of Income Tax, Bengaluru along with 20 Indian Revenue Services officers from his department have distributed over three lakh meals in these past two months.
“Initially, we approached the Railway Canteen to prepare food for around 2,500 people. But soon, with the help of BBMP, we identified thousands of people starving in different pockets of the city. So, we escalated our efforts by joining hands with NGOs – Lifeline Foundation and ATRIA,” says Nivya Shetty, the Assistant Income Tax Commissioner of Bengaluru, who is a part of Nishant’s team.
“On speaking to these migrant workers, we realised the intensity of the situation. These daily-wage earners have been working here for the past 10-20 years and have never been in a situation where they would have to wonder where their next meal would come from,” says Nivya Shetty.
“Imagine a situation where you have only water from the borewell for survival, that was one of the first things we saw when we went for fieldwork. We immediately started connecting with NGOs and several IAS officers and did everything in our personal capacities to help out,” she adds.
Besides providing over 3 lakh meals to the needy, Nishant’s team has also been able to provide 5,000 kgs of vegetables and is collaborating with Dr Megha Bhargava’s NGO Samarpan, which is redirecting a portion of their collections to Bengaluru.
4. “This was a completely different kind of disaster management. This time we had to keep people safe and healthy inside their homes rather than evacuating them.”
When the lockdown was announced, Saurabh Kumar, Municipal Commissioner, Raipur, immediately arranged a meeting with over 165 NGOs and launched a 24×7 helpline to help those in need.
“This was unlike any other disaster we have faced previously and required a tremendous amount of work. We had to ensure that the people were safe and healthy inside their homes unlike natural disasters where we had to evacuate them,” explains Ashish Mishra, the General Manager for Communications for Saurabh’s team.
“We had to ensure that every citizen was given awareness about the pandemic and that they were given the facilities to follow the precautions,” he adds.
So far, Saurabh’s team has distributed ration kits consisting of around 5 kg of rice, 1 kg of dal, 500 gms of besan (gram flour), 1 litre of cooking oil and soap and food packets to over 7 lakh individuals.
Besides the dry ration, he also onboarded 104 NGOs including the Akshay Patra Foundation, which are providing 8000 packets of cooked meals daily to the most vulnerable section of the population.
5. “With no work and no food to survive on, paying their rent was an added burden that many migrant labourers had to face initially.”
Tiruppur District Collector, Dr K Vijaykarthikeyan has been arranging food provisions for around more than 60,000 people since the imposition of the lockdown.
“One of the biggest difficulties the migrant labourers had to face was the added burden of paying their rent. We made the required arrangements to waive off the rent immediately but the emotional trauma that they went through during the initial days was unimaginable,” says Dr K Vijaykarthikeyan.
“We also set up a 24×7 control room with a team of officials and volunteers who are identifying the needy and making sure that the rations reach them in time. Around 1000 on-ground volunteers have been selected from among the citizens through our ‘Tiruppur Corona Fighters’ programme. They are working in close coordination with our administrative officials to facilitate the entire process. We have been operational since the very day of the lockdown,” shares Dr Vijaykarthikeyan.
Besides this, Vijaykarthikeyan’s team has also provided more than 16,000 dry ration kits to the migrant labourers who left to their hometowns.
As of now, around 50 per cent of the migrant population from these areas have reached their homes but many are still in need of help.
Thanks to the heroes who took this opportunity to do a good turn, many children, women, men and the elderly across India have been able to access basic food essentials like rice, oil, milk, pulses, flour, sugar, salt and so on.
However, the work is not over as thousands of needy are still suffering and are in need of your immediate support.
(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)
Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
Have you received an e-mail offering you a free COVID-19 test? If you have, then here is why you should steer clear from it, in fact, even delete it.
Why Should You Not Open It?
In opening such malicious e-mails you could be putting your cyber profile under threat. You also open up your private and financial details to hackers.
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-In) recently warned of a large-scale cyber attack against both individuals and businesses. Given that the entire world is gripped by the COVID-19 fear, attackers are using this time as bait to steal personal and financial information.
CERT-In is the nodal agency dealing with cybersecurity under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. It has issued an advisory warning that potential phishing attacks could impersonate government agencies, departments and trade bodies that have been tasked to oversee the disbursement of government fiscal aid.
It has been advised by CERT-In that no e-mail from ncov2019@gov.in be opened.
Things You Ought to Know
Representational image. Picture Courtesy: Flickr.
Such e-mails lead you to fake websites.
These fake websites deceive you into downloading malicious files or entering personal and financial information.
According to the advisory, there are about 2 million e-mail ids that may be getting such malicious e-mails.
The subject line in these emails is likely to be – Free COVID-19 testing for all residents of Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad.
How to Protect Yourself?
Cert-In has asked users to encrypt and protect their sensitive documents to avoid potential leakage. You can do this by installing good anti-virus tools and filtering services. Report any unusual activity or attack immediately to Cert-In.
Also, the government has issued warnings asking people not to open or click on attachments in an unsolicited email, SMS or messages.
In case the e-mail or SMS appears to be from a known source, be cautious while opening external links. If possible check with the sender.
Furthermore, any spelling error in the e-mail address, website, or an unfamiliar e-mail address is a cause for concern. Stay away from such e-mails.
Beware of e-mails which offer free COVID-19 testing, cashback offers, rewards, prizes, etc.
According to this report, COVID-19 related phishing campaigns have been immensely popular with cybercriminals across the world. Since the pandemic began in China, reports of phishing emails sent in the name of WHO, CDC, and other government agencies offering information, symptoms checks, free PPEs, and seeking donations have also multiplied.
You could report such e-mails or issues to Cert-In here.
We often underestimate the power of food. It isn’t just something that fills our stomach, but a source of joy associated with some of our most precious memories. The shared love of eating brings us closer and connects us in ways that words often fail to describe.
For Munaf Kapadia, the love and appreciation for his mother’s home-cooked food only grew over the years. Belonging to the Dawoodi Bohra community, Munaf noticed that the delicious dishes he ate at home like the smoked keema samosa, kaju chicken, and nalli nihari, weren’t widely available.
He decided to host a dining experience at home called ‘The Bohri Kitchen’ (TBK) for people to taste the delicious food. Munaf sent out a few emails to friends and acquaintances explaining what the dining experience would entail. To his surprise, within two hours, he got a call from an acquaintance who wanted to come over with six of her friends. After being served a gratifying seven-course meal, the guests left his home with a smile on their faces, showering Munaf and his mother, Nafisa, with praises.
(Left) Smoked Paneer and peanut samosas for vegetarians. (Right) Nalli Nihari, a slow cooked mutton gravy in a medley of spices served with sheermal naan
This was six years back in November 2014 on Munaf’s birthday.
“For me, my mum’s reaction was the most exciting part of the whole dining experience. Money was not a factor at that point. Also, this was an interesting experiment where I wanted to understand if I could create a brand online,” recalls the 31-year-old.
Making Dawoodi Bohra Cuisine Available to All
After receiving great feedback, they began to host experiences at home every week for eight people at a time. With time, this dining experience became more exclusive because it was hosted at his home.
TBK soon became the talk of the town. There was a long list of people who wanted to experience it and journalists from all over who wanted to cover it.
“We had become a sensation and got a lot of exposure from the local press. We even got press from BBC who came to shoot at our home, a segment which was telecast globally for eight minutes. That was a big thing for us,” says Munaf.
Munaf and his proud parents with late actor Rishi Kapoor who is seen enjoying the TBK’s home dining experience.
He realised the potential and officially founded TBK in August 2015. Before that, for nearly five years, he had been working at Google as an Account Strategist.
In the years that followed, TBK gained popularity among Mumbaikars with over 100+ dishes in a menu that showcases the Dawoodi Bohra cuisine. They set up two kitchens to deliver food along with offering catering services and found admirers in film stars like Rani Mukherjee, Rishi Kapoor, and Hrithik Roshan.
However, the journey has not been a smooth one. Munaf has overcome several roadblocks to run his business. Now, he’s writing a book commissioned by Harper Collins titled, The Guy Who Quit Google to Sell Samosas, which is slated for release later this year.
Tantalising Tastebuds Through Their Cuisine
Learning about traditional cuisine helped Munaf reconnect with his roots.
A decandent Bohri thal
The Dawoodi Bohra community is a branch of Shia Islam, that traces its roots to the Middle East, especially Yemen. Munaf goes on to explain how and a plate with a diameter of 3.5 feet came to be used.
“The Middle East has large deserts. This large plate was used to feed about seven to eight people in these areas. By circling the plate, the people ensured that sand did not land on their plates. Also, since it was a desert and water was scarce, it helped conserve the resource,” says Munaf.
Currently, TBK has two delivery kitchens, and until March, they hosted their exclusive dining experience three times a month, priced between Rs 1,500-3,500 per person. About 40 per cent of the dishes are vegetarian, prepared by cooks trained by Munaf’s mum.
The famed keema samosas
Ravinarayan Sahu is a regular, who gets excited at the mere mention of TBK. The 45-year-old first heard about TBK from friends while looking for caterers for an event at Axis Mutual Funds, where he works as the Deputy Vice President. He enjoyed the food so much that he even ended up ordering from there for his son’s birthday.
“Everyone loved the food, and the kids loved the dal samosas. My personal favourites are the chicken biryani, chicken cutlet, and the chicken malai seekh biryani, which we tried in our office last Diwali. Ab kya bolu, soch ke hi muh mein paani aa raha hai,” smiles Ravinarayan.
He’s also bought a jar of the khajoor dry fruit chutney that TBK retails, finding its sweet and sour flavours as the perfect accompaniment to dhokla or cutlets. Ravinarayan is also a fan of the doodhi ka halwa.
Munaf has also catered to a star-studded affair. He got a call from Aditya Chopra, who wanted him to provide food for actor Rani Mukherjee’s birthday. Munaf sent in the special thals for the meal and ensured they tasted the best of the traditional cuisine.
Munaf’s mum Nafisa with Rani Mukherjee
There is also the travelling thal concept where TBK sends their trained staff along with the special thals to cater to weddings. Munaf recalls a wedding in Perur where he sent 30 thals and fed over 300 people! TBK has also catered in buffet style, including over 5,000 people at a wedding.
Life before The Bohri Kitchen
Although managing a business in the food industry was not on his mind, Munaf always had an entrepreneurial bent of mind.
He pursued a BBA degree in Marketing from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai from 2006-2009. Soon after, he finished an MBA degree from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.
Fresh out of college in 2011, Munaf worked with Wrigley’s as a management trainee and became one of the few area Managers in the country.
Founder Munaf who quit Google who pursue his entrepreneurial path
“I was sent to rural Mysuru, and I was selling chewing gum to people in lungis. I remember I would move about with this man, Lingaraju. The pay was good, and I was living my best life. But, I realised that this was not something that I wanted to do forever,” he says.
In the same year, Munaf applied for an Account strategist’s position at Google and got through. “I was so happy when I got the job. There was a 50 per cent pay cut involved (vis-a-vis the previous job), and my father wasn’t happy with that. But, I was enamoured by the possibility of being in that space, and I did not want to let the opportunity pass. I even made a presentation to explain to my father that this is what I wanted,” he says.
Finally, he moved to Hyderabad for his job, and within nine months, was transferred back to Mumbai with a promotion where he had a client-facing role. He then gradually moved up the ladder. And when TBK began informally, he was still working at Google. One chance discussion with a well-meaning colleague made Munaf take account of the situation.
Nafisa, Munaf’s mum who has been the guiding light throughout
“He asked me what my plans with TBK were. I told him that I wanted to continue working at Google and perhaps move to Singapore or the UK. When he asked me about TBK, I didn’t have a clear answer. He told me that whenever a decision is made, I should think five years ahead instead of one. That helped me gain perspective,” says Munaf.
He realised that if TBK did not work out, he could shut shop and get on with his corporate career. But, with all the momentum that TBK was getting at the time, it would be unwise to ignore it. This is what led him to quit Google and direct his focus on TBK.
Although Munaf was enthusiastic about the prospect of reinventing The Bohri Kitchen as a full-fledged business, his parents were not happy.
“My father asked me if I quit google to sell samosas, and I started thinking if I had made a mistake,” recalls Munaf.
For three months, they did well, but things started going downhill. TBK set up a stall at the NH7 Weekender Music Festival in 2015, but the stall did not do well, and Munaf ended up losing Rs 50,000.
Delicious components in the Bohri Thal
After that, he set up a delivery kitchen and began fulfilling orders through different delivery apps. But from the beginning of 2016, the ratings began to fall.
“I thought that I could replicate my mother’s food in delivery kitchens, but that was a wrong assumption. The people who were ordering were expecting the experience when they visited our home. I took every criticism to heart and had constant breakdowns. And in December 2016, my CA told me that I was bankrupt,” he recalls.
Munaf had almost given up on TBK and started looking for jobs when he got an unexpected call.
“Forbes India wanted to put me on the cover along with others for their ’30-under-30′ issue. That was a wake-up call and made me decide that I had to keep TBK alive and going,” says Munaf.
People enjoying the home dining experience
Munaf changed his approach to the business and started learning how to cook his mom’s food. Slowly and steadily, things started moving up. With seed funding from investors, he was able to scale his business and set up about five outlets, four of which were delivery kitchens. In August 2019, he went from 20 to 200 orders in a day, and he couldn’t be happier.
TBK in the Post-Pandemic World
Until the end of 2019, Munaf had standardised the food, created a proper supply chain to different corners in Mumbai, and planned to expand to Pune.
But, a lot has changed for TBK in the last few months. They made nearly Rs 35 lakh in August and September last year, but the cost of maintaining the five outlets was high. Although he was confident that they would receive Pre-Series A funding, no one signed the check.
“I realised that investors were not looking to put their money on a business that produced niche food and were seeking out businesses that were delivering multiple cuisines from the same kitchen. But, with COVID-19, the decision was taken away from my hands,” he says.
Khajoor dry fruit chutney which is available for retail
Like most businesses, TBK, too, had to scale down to survive. Three of the five outlets have been shut down, and they had to let go of over 50 per cent of their staff. Despite this setback, Munaf feels that this is a new phase and an opportunity for him to use the wealth of knowledge he’s gathered over the years.
Now, they plan on relaunching TBK around August-September. Scaling down their operations also gives them time to focus and do things well, emphasises Munaf. He also hopes to expand on the retail aspect where they bottle and sell more of their condiments like the khajoor chutney and pickles.
“The idea is to create something that cannot be replicated. I want to make Bohri food more relevant to everyone. I see us being unconventional and standing out. I want The Bohri Kitchen to be something that survives a lifetime and has the sense of community at its heart,” he says.
Imagine resting peacefully in a house by the beach under the shade of several coconut trees. Sounds like a dream right? The ‘Palmyra house’, located to the south of Mumbai on the banks of the Arabian Sea makes this dream come true with sustainable architecture!
Located on the Nandgoan village, mostly populated with fisherfolk and their families, the unique ‘Palmyra house’ is built by renowned architect, Bijoy Jain and his team at Studio Mumbai.
This 3000 sq. ft house is made up of two huge wooden structures that have been constructed with slanted wooden slates that though permit light and air to enter, keeps out the rain and direct sunshine.
All of this is made from palmyra, a particular type of palm tree which is cut, dried, and locally-harvested as wood.
“The house is set in a coconut plantation with a beautiful view of the Arabian Sea. The entire idea was to create something light with plenty of air circulation. That’s how Bijoy Jain came up with the idea of using Palmyra which was abundantly available nearby,” Jeevaram Suthar, who worked with the team for this project in 2007 tells The Better India (TBI).
“All the different parts of the palmyra have been used over the ages in different ways. From thatching roofs to creating mats, baskets, basically almost everything we use coconut trees for,” he adds.
The Palmyra house serves as a vacation home for Mumbai-based entrepreneur Jamshyd Sethna and his family.
“The two box-like structures which make up the entire home is separated by a 25-foot wide courtyard that consists of a pool that simply merges with the surroundings. This separation is one of the major highlights of the house. And the water for the house is harvested from three on-site wells, stored at the top of a water tower,” Jeevaram explains.
Being One With Nature
Source: Flickr
Jeevaram goes onto explain how the structural framing for the house is built of ‘Ain wood’ which is also known as ‘Marutham’ in Tamil.
“This particular wood was used because it is a local variety and also fire-resistant, making it an ideal choice. The team used traditional interlocking techniques while building the frame of the house,” he adds.
The slanted wooden slate-like structure, also known as louvres, is also another key feature of ‘The Palmyra House’. Jeevaram explains how these blinds-like openings have been constructed with the outer bark of the Palmyra tree which increases the air circulation in the house.
Chennai-based architect, Benny Kuriakose, who has constructed over 100 earthen houses and has worked with Palmyra trees, shares a similar sentiment.
“Where thatched coconut leaves last for one year, palmyra leaves last for four, which classifies it as a much stronger alternative,” he explains.
Jeevaram shares how several other aspects of the house have been planned in such a way that there is a traditional and sustainable sense to the place as a whole.
“We used local basalt rock to make the boundary walls, pillars and the pavements and the plaster finish used was pigmented with sand from the beach,” he explains.
The house cost close to Rs 2 crores. It has a minimised footprint and was positioned to preserve as many trees as possible. Due to the density of trees, the building site is inaccessible by motorised vehicles or heavy equipment, which required the excavation of the foundations entirely by hand.
This excavated material was then utilised for agricultural purposes elsewhere on the site. The coconut plantation uses the local aqueduct irrigation system and water is harvested from four on-site wells, which also provide water for the house.
“It was a real collaboration between the architects and the craftsmen with regard to every design and detail that went into the home. We tested various traditional techniques to ensure that it was well adapted with the environment and went ahead with the ones that worked. This is what has culminated into the handcrafted Palmyra house,” says he.
Using locally-available material, the expertise of local artisans and craftsmen and the use of traditional building techniques, ‘Palmyra’ is a stellar example of how we can save up on resources and at the same time, reduce our carbon footprint.
(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)
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“I was in my teens when I learnt how to drive a car, and I loved every second of being behind the wheel. So, when the time came to choose a line of work, it was easy — I transformed my passion for driving into a profession,” begins 27-year-old Vidya Shelke, who used to work as a cab driver in Mumbai, for prominent cab-aggregators.
Her work was a source of constant joy to her. But, things went south when the COVID-19 lockdown was announced. Like many others in the country, Vidya too, lost her job.
“It was half the source of the total household income that was largely spent on the children. It was quite a hit for us, but I was not ready to back down,” shares Vidya who then decided to turn this adversity into an opportunity by helping people, who were stranded due to the lockdown, reach their homes safely. She started this service on March 28, and has helped almost 200 people so far.
From Adversity to Opportunity
Vidya lives in Mulund, a suburb in Mumbai, with her husband Anil, and two children.
“Anil runs a small business of transporting goods. He works very hard but supporting the entire family single-handedly is a challenge in this city, and I wanted to help, somehow. So, I started as an autorickshaw driver. However, continuing in that job was quite a problem especially with regards to security and so when I got the opportunity to drive at a prominent taxi-service, I decided to shift. Since then, things were great as we were able to manage our daily expenses while providing a good education to our children,” shares Vidya, whose kids study in a boarding school in Shirdi, Maharashtra.
But, after the centre’s decision to impose nationwide lockdown on 24 March, Vidya was scared. “I wondered about the future of my kids. How would I provide for them without a job?,” she mentions.
After a lot of thinking, Vidya came up with a novel idea of providing cab service to aid those who were stranded or stuck amid the lockdown situation.
“With the train and bus services shutting down, many were struggling to travel back to their homes. I realised the gravity of the situation and decided to do something about it. My husband already had a car that I was using when on the job, so I took it out, shot a video message announcing my services to those who needed it, and circulated it on social media,” she says.
In a matter of 10 minutes after uploading the video, Vidya began to get calls for pickups. From senior citizens, pregnant women to families from migrant labourers, the cab driver helped them all, and drove to the farthest corners of Maharashtra, to get them home.
When asked about how she managed to do this in a scenario where several cities and districts had sealed their borders, she mentions that most of her customers were emergency cases and she tried her best to find proper permissions before transporting them. And in cases, where she couldn’t, she would politely refuse.
“I am deeply grateful to Vidya for helping out when there was no option available. My wife and I would be stuck in Mumbai if it wasn’t for her. She not only dropped us to our village in Jalna, but also helped make the e-passes. Additionally, she did all of this while also following all the safety protocols,” mentions Sunil Sadam, who was working as a daily wage worker in Mumbai.
Adhering to the safety guidelines, Vidya has made it mandatory to wear masks inside the cab and carried a bottle of sanitizer and extra masks for those who did not have them. Also, she would only take two passengers, except children, in the back seat of her car. No one was allowed to sit in the front seat, owing to the norms of social distancing.
A Cab Driver Who Lent A Helping Hand
Vidya charges only Rs 12 per km, one way for the journey, and also provides a return journey, if required, for free. She has also helped arrange for e-passes for her passengers.
Having ferried so many people in the last few months, she has probably had her share of memorable journeys. Recounting one, she says, “There was a pregnant lady who approached me for a 160-km-long ride back home to Junnar. She was alone and did not have enough money to afford the travel, but was in a critical state, awaiting delivery any day. The municipal hospital had turned her away due to lack of vacancy, and she couldn’t afford any other hospital. So I managed to quickly make her e-pass and started the journey. We were only some 10 kilometers away from her house, when the authorities at the checkpost denied entry to her, despite having all the documents right. Thanks to the help of another samaritan, a truck driver transporting agricultural goods, I managed to board and send her home after taking extraordinary measures. That is one incident I can never forget.”
This sense of responsibility and the courage to help the needy even in dire situations, makes Vidya, and people like her, the true heroes of humanity, who go the extra mile to make the lives of others better.
“We can truly overcome such adversity only as a community.By offering my services, I was being a responsible citizen and doing my duty, as well as earning some money,” she concludes,
You can support Vidya or reach out for help, by getting in touch with her at: 79000 71050 (WhatsApp)
Unlike most of the buildings in the maximum city of Mumbai that rely on water tankers, the Sealine Housing Society at Union Park in Khar is carefree. This building, overlooking the Arabian sea, has ten flats, and champions eco-friendly practices such as rainwater harvesting, harnessing solar energy, and treating 100 per cent wet waste at source.
90-year-old Navin Chandra, Chairman of the residential complex, is behind the sustainable goals set in the 2000s after witnessing the grim reality of Mumbai’s water needs.
Navin Chandra
“In 2000, when we moved to this society, I was appalled to see how the residents didn’t mind shelling a hefty amount every week to purchase water tankers. The water was not even clean. I decided to find a solution and catch every drop of rainwater. So, I turned towards rainwater harvesting, which also became our segue to other measures like waste management and harnessing sunlight,” Navin tells The Better India.
He convinced every resident of the building to invest in a rainwater harvesting facility (costing Rs 7 lakh), solar panels and windmill (Rs 13 lakh), and a composting pit (around Rs 1 lakh). He assured them that they would not only recover the cost in a few years but also reduce their utility expenses.
And they did so by 2012.
Terrace view of Sealine
The collective efforts went on to inspire several buildings to implement at least one of the sustainable measures. The Sealine also impressed former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who awarded the building as ‘Clean Crusader for Innovation’ in 2016.
Here’s What Your Society Can Learn:
1. Rainwater Harvesting
Navin carefully studied his building plot (770 sq m) and the terrace (220 sq m) and realised that catching every drop of rainwater could help save close to five lakh litres of water every monsoon.
With this in mind, water accumulated on the terrace and floor was transported to the underground filtration plant, where trenches are built and layered with sand and pebbles to capture run-off water as well. The water treatment plant in the society also promotes greywater recycling.
Taking a step further, society has also installed a reverse osmosis plant that can filter 200 litres of water within an hour. The unfiltered water, meanwhile, is used for non-potable needs such as washing utensils and cars, toilet flushing, and gardening.
These measures have reaped astonishing results. “We have stopped purchasing tank water, and can even fulfil the water needs of our neighbouring buildings. However, the best part has been the recharging of groundwater tables,” says Navin.
Every monsoon, they save a minimum of two lakh litres of water.
As per India Water Portal, water can now be seen at a depth of four feet in the Sealine complex as against the average of 35 feet in suburban Mumbai.
2. Solar Panels and Windmill
Sealine is partially (50 per cent) independent when it comes to its electricity needs, thanks to the solar panels and a windmill.
The idea behind installing both facilities was to optimise the monsoons and summers judiciously. “Since we are facing the sea, we get ample wind energy in the monsoons, which compensates for the lack of solar energy. We are never short of energy.”
About 200 lights and fans in common spaces and corridors run on the 4-watt power procured in one hour by harnessing sunlight. The solar energy also helps run the water heating system that supplies hot water to around 40 bathrooms in the building.
Through solar panels and windmill, the society managed to cut down 50 per cent of their monthly electricity bills.
3. Waste Management
Long before the call to manage waste penetrated Indian households under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Sealine was already segregating and composting.
Dry garbage is handed over to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for recycling, while wet/organic waste is composted and used in gardening. It is deposited in the 3×3 feet vermicomposting pit, where worms decompose more than 100 kilos of waste into 10 kilos of manure every month.
Why Your Building Needs a Sustainable Route
Navin opines that people need to realise the seriousness of climate change and its effects.
“The only way out is to opt for a sustainable lifestyle and utilise nature innovatively. Otherwise, you will be writing your death warrant.”
Echoing his words, water conservation expert Laxman Singh believes that urban dwellers will witness worse water crises than people residing in villages.
“Unlike villages, cities have minimal spaces to store water, and their populations are massive. Building lakes or ponds is not feasible in metros like Mumbai, Chennai, or Delhi. Thus, adopting smart rainwater harvesting systems as per the building space and needs, like in the case of Sealine, is a solution. Every building can store water from its terrace or floor during the monsoon every year,” Laxman says. He has revived multiple ponds with his ‘Chauka’ system, making his village in Rajasthan water-sufficient.
Presently, Mumbai has two gripping problems — waterlogging and flooding during monsoons, and high electricity bills. But Sealine is one housing society free from both.
In this episode, meet the superhero behind one of Mumbai's eco-friendly societies — he has single-handedly installed rainwater harvesting system, solar panels, windmills and composting units in the apartment! #SustainableHomes #LiveGreen #GreenIndia #GoGreen #MustWatch #VideoOfTheDay CII – Indian Green Building Council – IGBC
Unavailability of beds in hospitals for COVID-19 patients has been one of the most discussed and debated topics off late. Many news articles have spoken about hospitals denying admissions to patients for treatment of COVID-19, sometimes leading to fatal consequences.
Aggrieved citizens have also filed PIL’s in various High Courts, seeking the court’s intervention.
In an attempt to curb this practice, State governments are now setting up 24×7 helpline numbers where you can lodge a complaint in case a hospital denies admission.
Karnataka: You can call the 24×7 helpline number — 1912. “Whoever calls the number will get immediate relief,” said Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar. During a press conference also reiterated that 50 per cent beds in private hospitals have also been reserved for COVID-19 patients. Along with which there is also a cap on the charges that private hospitals can levy on patients.
Delhi: Call 1031 if a hospital denies a bed to a COVID-19 patient if beds are available. Patients looking specifically to get treated at AIIMS can call 9115444155 for OPD appointment schedules and for teleconsultations.
Mumbai: Call 1916 to check about the availability of hospital beds in Mumbai. In a first, the Mumbai police have also set up a 24×7 helpline — 9137777100 — for police personnel after the death of a constable due to COVID-19.
When contacted, the call attendee informed The Better India that the police helpline was a dedicated channel to provide verified information to all policemen and their families. The department receives around 50 calls daily.
Tamil Nadu: Call 044-29510500 if you are looking for information about COVID-19 and the availability of beds in hospitals.
Pan India: Call toll-free helpline 1075 to get answers for Covid-19 related queries. According to this report, the 1075 helpline is a 24×7 functional call centre and has received 27,54,808 calls as on 31 May 2020.
Dr Anisha Ashok, Surgical Gastroenterologist, Director & Chairman, Laser and Laparoscopic Hospital, Chennai says, “As doctors, we are morally bound by ethics. It is very important that every patient who comes to us should receive the treatment he or she deserves. Patients should not and cannot be denied treatment based on COVID reports.”
What happens if a patient is denied admission?
Dr Anisha Ashok
“Depending on what the situation in the hospital is, I would advise you to be referred to another hospital where you can be treated and admitted immediately. You could also ask for a detailed reason in writing so that the other hospital understands why you are being referred,” he suggests.
Advocate Hemant Gulati of the Delhi High Court has been actively petitioning to ensure that no hospital denies a patient treatment or admission. He has also taken on many cases in the National Capital on a pro-bono basis to help those in need.
He shares some points on the topic with us:
Things to know
The Constitution of India guarantees every citizen of the country the right to medical care; this extends to both COVID and non-COVID patients.
If a hospital refuses to admit a patient or turns them away, you have the legal right to file a writ petition in a court of law.
You also have the option of registering your complaint with the Ministry of Health.
In case a private hospital denies treatment to a non-COVID-19 patient, the hospital may lose its medical registration licence.
Please exercise your rights in case you find yourself in a situation like this.
This article is part of our series, the ‘Great Indian Manufacturing’, in which we will reveal the historic success stories behind pioneering swadeshi items and brands that generations of Indians have loved through decades.
As a child who would frequently lose herself in books, the sounds coming from my middle-class Indian kitchen had a way of making me jump.
There I’d be on a cosy couch, snuggled up with a Famous Five adventure, and it would come out of nowhere, this high-pitched wail, like that of a shrieking train crossed with a PE teacher’s whistle and a hissing tomcat.
This was the sound of our trusty pressure cooker, a fixture in desi kitchens for decades. So how and when did India fall in love with this humble device?
To unravel the answer, we need to go back to 1869, when a forgotten Indian polymath was born in Burdwan district of West Bengal. A man of many talents, Indumadhab Mallick was truly brilliant — by the age of 28, he had completed his post graduation in subjects as diverse as zoology, law, philosophy and physics!
Indumadhab later studied medicine at the Calcutta Medical College and wrote articles on scientific discoveries in magazines such as the Modern Review. He was also an avid traveller and inventor.
In fact, it was his journey through East Asia that inspired him to build his most famous invention, the Icmic cooker. And it was this steam cooker that paved the way for the eventual widespread acceptance of stovetop cookers in Indian homes.
So how did the Icmic cooker work? It was basically a tiffin carrier of sorts that was filled with food and lowered into a larger cylinder with a charcoal stove below. Water was placed in the outer chamber, the stove lit and the whole device sealed — with the steam from boiling water creating the effect of a slow cooker.
The moist environment of the Icmic Cooker was particularly well suited to cooking dals, curries and meat, making the invention a runaway hit in Bengali homes. The best part? The fact that the cookers could be left alone — since they weren’t pressurised, they wouldn’t explode.
Working bachelors living in boarding lodges were the biggest fans of Icmic cookers, because they would fill the cooker with dal, rice and meat, light the coal burner, and then go to work leaving the food to cook slowly. When they returned, the cooker would have their meals sitting inside, ready to be eaten warm.
In his memoirs Nice Guys Finish Second, Indian diplomat Braj Kumar Nehru recalled an uncle who would only eat food cooked in an Icmic cooker that “produced a nourishing but not exactly cordon bleu meal”. Ornithologist Salim Ali would also take along an Icmic cooker on bird-watching trips.
Ornithologist Salim Ali with Mary and Dillon Ripley on a collection trip (1976) Photo Source: Wikipedia
In 1944, The Times of India published an ad on Icmic cookers, extolling “Dr IM Mallik’s scientific and hygienic cooking apparatus”.
Little wonder it continues to be in demand in Kolkata, with new versions that can be used on gas and electric burners apart from charcoal. If you are interested in getting one, try Monmotho Enterprises on Kolkata’s iconic College Street.
Talking of much-loved indigenous cookers, this story would not be complete without mentioning the Santosh cooker and the Rukmani cooker.
“This cooker prepares food without affecting the most essential vitamins, the vital things required for bodybuilding,” explains an antique booklet written by Mumbai’s Kalidas Vanmalidas Bhavsar, the owner of Lalji Vanmalidas & Bros, the company that made and patented Santosh cookers.
In terms of working, Santosh cookers had four compartments that would stack inside a cylinder and a coal stove at the bottom — quite similar to Icmic cookers but made from 21 gauge brass. The cooker was primarily marketed as one you could carry with you while travelling. In fact, a drawing in the aforementioned booklet shows passengers boarding a plane with a coolie carrying their bags and a Santosh cooker.
While Calcutta had Icmic and Bombay had Santosh, Madras found its own version of a one-stop portable kitchen in the patented Rukmani cooker.
A must-have on pilgrimages undertaken in the old days, this cooker had five steel vessels that would fit inside a brass unit that could be carried around like a bucket. The components could be used in various combinations (depending on the menu of the day) to slow-cook food, with the brass exterior retaining the heat to keep the dishes warm.
But the rise of pressure cookers ended the reign of these traditional all-in-one cookers. In 1935, the Automa pressure cooker was launched and it got a big publicity boost when mountaineers attempting to climb the Everest took it along with them. In the mountains, boiling takes longer due to lower air pressure, so pressure cookers are a big advantage.
But it was only after a safety valve was included in the design that the Indian masses began using pressure cookers frequently — too many of them remembered erupting pots to do otherwise!
There’s an interesting anecdote about how this safety issue was resolved in India. In his book, How TTK Prestige Became a Billion Dollar Company, TT Jagannathan shared how a pressure cooker fix saved the company from imminent bankruptcy.
Around 1978, people and shopkeepers in north India had started complaining that their Prestige cookers kept exploding. Jagannathan investigated and found that the cookers were bursting because of spurious spare parts used by dealers.
While Prestige’s original safety plugs were made of tin bismuth (an alloy that would melt when heat reached critical levels), the material in the inferior spare parts wouldn’t, leading to bursting cookers.
Since it wasn’t possible for Prestige to stop the use of such spares by dealers, Jagannathan came up with a solution that would prevent the cookers from bursting even if spurious spare parts were used — the Gasket Release System.
This is how it worked: Whenever the cooker was overloaded or the safety valve blocked, the rubber ring (gasket) would be pushed out through a slot in the lid, thus releasing the excess steam!
“The GRS is just a hole in the lid. But if it were not for that hole, the company would have gone bankrupt”, writes Jagannathan.
With all these safety features being included, pressure cookers quickly became a kitchen essential in India. Despite the fact that they were cumbersome to handle, Indian women were quite appreciative of the fact that the cookers could cut fuel consumption as well as the time spent in sweltering kitchens.
With time, wherever Indians went, they began taking their precious pressure cookers along. UK-based Indian food blogger Sia Krishna remembers packing a pressure cooker along with her mother’s handwritten cookbook and homemade pickles when she first left India for a life abroad.
On a more light-hearted note, Chinmay Tumbe shares the creative non-culinary ways in which Indians abroad have been using pressure cookers in his book India Moving: A History of Migration.
For example, in Slovenia, an Indian doctor connected his pressure cooker to a big box to make a simple sauna for his Ayurvedic clinic!
Much closer home, there’s said to be a Pressure Cooker Baba temple in Siachen. The story behind it says that a pressure cooker in an army post on the glacier attracted a Pakistani heat-seeking missile, saving the soldiers it was aimed at. In gratitude, they built a shrine at the spot.
If that made you want to go and give your pressure cooker a hug, feel free to do so. You could also join hands with it to whip up a quick Bengali khichuri using roasted moong dal and fragrant gobindobhog rice. Here’s the recipe: https://www.bongeats.com/recipe/khichuri
In all honesty, the first time I had ever heard of legendary playwright, director and producer Satyadev Dubey was not through one of his plays, but an interview veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal gave to Cinestaan in June 2017. Funnily enough, the interview wasn’t even about Dubey, but the actor Amrish Puri and how he used the money earned from commercial films to fund standout theatre groups like the Mumbai-based Theatre Unit.
“He [Amrish Puri] had become a popular star and villain in commercial films. This is where the money came from. But he helped a lot of people with that money. He kept the poor Theatre Unit going. When Satyadev Dubey would do a play, the production was paid for by Amrish. Nobody knew that was happening,” said Shyam Benegal.
Reading this quote, I thought to myself ‘who is this Satyadev Dubey’? Why would one of the all time great actors take the trouble of paying for this man’s production? What was it about Satyadev Dubey that elicited such kindness and loyalty from one of the all time great actors? What ensued was a frantic Google search about this unique personality. I found hundreds of tributes, remembrances, anecdotes and even an obituary in The New York Times dedicated to Satyadev Dubey, who was fondly known as ‘Dubey Ji’ to many.
A simple Google Search opened my eyes to a figure, who trained and inspired generations of Indian actors including Amrish Puri, Amol Palekar, Nasseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Govind Nihalani, Sulabha Deshpande, Mohan Bhandari, Harish Patel, Sonali Kulkarni and even Akshaye Khanna before he began acting in films. He also inspired and continues to inspire generations of playwrights, directors and producers.
Born into an upper-caste family in Bilaspur on 13 July, 1936, Dubey had aspirations of becoming a cricket player while studying at a Mumbai college in the early 1950s. All that changed when he was introduced to theatre and began acting in Theatre Unit, a Mumbai troupe run by director Ebrahim Alkazi.
When Alkazi left to take over the National School of Drama in Delhi by the early 1960s, Dubey took over the reins and produced a series of plays including “Andha Yug”, an anti-war Hindi play written by Dharamvir Bharati and “Yayati”, a Kannada play written by Girish Karnad which was translated into Hindi with Amrish Puri in a lead role.
These plays would go on to change the landscape of modern theatre in India.
As the man responsible for reviving and modernising Hindi theatre through the 1960s and 1970s, he was a key actor in creating a pan-Indian theatre consciousness by producing plays translated from different Indian languages like Gujarati, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi. He was a man ruthlessly brilliant in his commitment to theatre.
But there were two things I still wanted to know about Dubey Ji. Was Shyam Benegal’s anecdote about Amrish Puri and Dubey Ji true? Also, what was it about Dubey Ji that elicited such kindness and loyalty? In my search for persons who could offer me an insight into the man’s life, I found his grandson Satyajeet Dubey, an actor, on Instagram.
Sending him a direct message on Instagram, I asked him whether Shyam Benegal’s assertions about his grandfather were true. After waiting for over a day, he responded in the affirmative, but added that he didn’t know much about the entire affair. Instead he pointed me towards one of Dubey Ji’s students and acclaimed theatre actor Hidayat Sami.
Besides offering me some unique insights into how Dubey Ji trained his actors, Sami didn’t really have in-depth answers to my questions about the Amrish Puri anecdote. He said that this had happened well before his time on stage and association with Dubey Ji.
Instead, he was kind enough to get me in touch with two people who shared a very close relationship with Dubey Ji—legendary theatre director, thespian and protege Sunil Shanbag and Lata Sharma, an actor and a close confidant.
Speaking to both of them, it’s evident that Dubey Ji left an indelible impression on so many lives. Maybe this is how he inspired such loyalty from the likes of Amrish Puri.
“Even when Puri Saab wasn’t a very successful film actor, his deep sense of loyalty to Dubey was always there. He always supported Dubey regardless of whether it was with money or any other way. Whenever Puri Saab had time, he would personally come for a performance, sit backstage with us and meet us after the show. His loyalty and support went much beyond just the financial assistance he would offer every now and then,” says Sunil Shanbag, in an exclusive conversation with The Better India.
“There are three generations of actors who have trained under him. Many of them have gone on to become successful actors. Once again, it depends on how you define success. Some have successfully transitioned into mainstream cinema, while others continue to perform on stage till this day and are doing very well because of their skill and craft,” he adds.
But what was it about Dubey Ji that elicited such love, respect and loyalty?
Satyadev Dubey and Alaknanda Samarth performing Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit (Photo courtesy Sunil Shanbag)
Satyadev Dubey, the man
“Dubey was a total maverick with amazing foresight who was way ahead of his time,” recalls Lata Sharma with a tone of nostalgia emanating from her voice. “Although he had a very short temper which mellowed with age, he was a father figure to all of us.”
If he saw potential in anyone, which they may not have recognized it themselves, he went all out to ensure that they made the most of their inherent skills. He was usually bang on about identifying that potential and was willing to give his time, energy and patience, she recalls.
However, it’s his selflessness as a teacher which really stood out, according to Sharma. Since Dubey’s needs were so limited, there was never a commercial angle to any work he did. This was also reflected in his simple living situation. Sharma speaks of how he had just one mattress on the floor, a chair and a wall of books lining his room.
“It’s nearly impossible to keep track of the number of notable actors and actresses he taught. Dubey Ji held workshops for free distributing passages to anyone that walked in and asked them to memorize it. He would teach impromptu exercises to improve their speech, stance and posture. There were spaces like the Prithvi Theatre, which back in the 1970s was a lot quieter than it’s today. At a cafe there, he would host these workshops once a week. Nearly 25-30 people came there, consisting of struggling actors and actresses or people who just wanted a little more confidence to face situations in their professional lives,” she recalls.
Major actors, who had crossed over into mainstream cinema, would willingly offer their assistance, money or time to Dubey for his productions in whatever capacity. That also comes from the fact many of them are actors from the National School of Drama (NSD).
Every year for a number of years, he was invited by NSD to do a production with final year students. Casting them in his plays and seeing their potential, Dubey never failed in mentioning their names to his friends in the film industry. He would recommend their names to people in the industry or just state them in passing during a gathering of people who matter that they should watch for this young man or woman coming out of NSD.
“Many of these actors got their major break or a foot in the door while approaching filmmakersor production houses because of his recommendation. A lot of them may or may not acknowledge it, but deep down each one of them knows how much Dubey Ji’s words mattered. That is something which I think makes them grateful. If they remembered that, somewhere along the line they would have liked to repay him. But there was nothing material they could give him in return because his personal needs were minimal although he occasionally enjoyed his glass of Blue Label whiskey,” recalls Sharma.
Dubey’s purpose was always set towards furthering the gospel of theatre.
“Dubey Ji’s personality was such that whenever he needed help, he was never embarrassed to ask. And he always asked for help on his own terms. For example, if a performance was coming up and the advertising would cost Rs 15,000, he would ask you to pay the advertising company directly, and not deposit the money with him. You have a long list of people who have always stepped in to help pay for food during rehearsals or donate cushions, toys or other household items for the set because he had this uncanny ability to bring people together. I personally know Nasseruddin Shah always stepped in to help in any capacity whenever he was called upon. He touched people who worked with him in a way few can describe. Not many people would ever refuse to help him,” says Shanbag.
Satyadev Dubey directing AADHE ADHURE with Jyotsna Karyekar and Amrish Puri. (Photo courtesy Sunil Shanbag)
Dubey’s Gharana of Acting
At the heart of this gratitude that many of his students and contemporaries offered was his dedicated approach to his craft. His theatre centred around words and texts. What always fascinated him was the world of words and ideas. A lot of his training centred around these elements.
“As actors, we were trained very rigorously in the way we spoke the words and how we extracted meaning from them. That was the fundamental basis of his training and all the technical aspects that went into that. Besides, his was a very minimal sort of theatre. He didn’t depend too much on set design, lighting, costumes, etc. For him, the primary focus was the actor and the text and everything that went with these elements was at the core of his training. You would find that most of the young actors who trained under him articulate the text in a very particular way independent of the language,” says Shanbag.
There was a certain formality in the way his actors articulated their text. In fact, there was a criticism at one point that all Dubey-trained actors are the same. But that’s how the training was and it was a school of theatre in itself like a Gharana in classical Indian music.
“Dubey Ji also had an extremely sharp ear and a great sense of editing text. He was a master of choreography as a director. By choreography, I don’t mean movement or dance choreography, but the ability to move actors on stage to create a parallel narrative. His choreography added another layer to the text. Movements on stage in a Dubey production were never superfluous because they always added something to what the text was trying to say. He was a very demanding taskmaster. Everything was very rigorous with him. Nothing was done casually. Even conversations were intense and passionate with him,” he adds.
Since there was so much emphasis on actors, text and movement on stage, Dubey’s theatre was minimalistic in its own right as well. Most theatre functions under limited resources. Often, necessity becomes a virtue. You don’t have money for lighting, sets and costumes, but have actors and text, and they become the fundamental pillars of your work. Naturally, as a producer you concentrate on what’s available–actors and a script.
“See, the thing is his sets were never elaborate. He would sometimes get a friend or acquaintance looking to catch a break in the industry as a set designer to design it for him. To obtain funds that would help him execute the set design, he would write an ad, do a bit role in films, write a lot of dialogue and screenplays,” says Sharma.
Just so that we know, he won the 1978 National Film Award for Best Screenplay for Shyam Benegal’s ‘Bhumika’ and 1980 Filmfare Best Dialogue Award for ‘Junoon’.
“Dubey Ji never looked to earn money in the conventional sense. If he needed it, the money would come from a short gig he would take up or from somewhere else. Also, you have to note that the scale of theatre productions were much more modest back in the 1960s and 70s. Today, it’s very difficult for small groups to survive,” she recalls.
People are today making a living out of theatre, which wasn’t really the case 40 years ago. Dubey never looked at how he could recover the money on his production or how long it should run, etc. He would often say in these times ‘chalna hoga toh chalega’.
“In those days, smaller towns and cities invited a lot of theatre groups from Bombay. We got some money, but otherwise it was like a picnic and sometimes that money would be kept aside for the next production. Today, theatre productions begin with the budget, before one can even contemplate a reading of the play,” says Sharma.
Satyadev Dubey directing AADHE ADHURE with Jyotsna Karyekar and Amrish Puri. (Photo courtesy Sunil Shanbag)
Pan-India Theatre
A great conversationalist, his acquaintances often say that he loved to get into discussions, enjoyed sharing his excitement of a piece of theatre he had seen or read, always dreamt up a new project or organised a reading of a new play someone wrote. He loved the energy of being with people. Invariably, he was the focal point of a lot of get-togethers.
Back in the 1970s, when film producer Vinod Doshi gave him the entire ground floor of Walchand Terrace in Tardeo for four years as a rehearsal space, it turned into a great meeting point for all the legends of theatre at that time.
At a time when communicating with people across cities wasn’t so easy, he would ask for scripts from Bengal, Delhi, Karnataka, would organise translation of these scripts often in Hindi and many of them would get produced on stage. In fact, he was one of the key persons in informing actors in Mumbai that they weren’t working in isolation, but were part of a contemporary and blossoming pan-India scene.
“Dubey Ji often travelled around different cities like Kolkata and Delhi and had friends there. In Kolkata, for example, he had friends like Shyamanand Jalan. In Delhi, he would meet Rajinder Paul. They would call him up and say ‘hey, we found this very interesting script by Badal Babu (Badal Sarkar) and you must read it’. Dubey Ji would invariably respond by asking for the script, get it translated, organise readings and made available to any director in Bombay interested in producing this play,” argues Shanbag.
What would have otherwise been restricted to Bengal now moves to another part of the country, available in translation (mostly Hindi) and directors from various parts of India produce it. These plays moved around India. This is before the days of easy phone calls, emails or any of it. It was indeed a laborious process.
Dubey Ji worked with plays from so many different languages translated in Hindi, of course, whether it’s from Europe, Bengal or Karnataka and produce them from Hindi adaptation of Albert Camus’s “Cross Purpose” and Jean-Paul Sartre’s “No Exit” to Girish Karnad’s “Hayavadana” and Vijay Tendulkar’s “Khamosh! Adalat Jaari Hai”.
There is no question he created this theatrical sensibility that went well beyond Mumbai.
Shanta Gokhale, a noted writer and theatre historian, who has also written a book documenting his outstanding work called ‘Satyadev Dubey: A Fifty-Year Journey Through Theatre’, best describes this particular aspect, when she writes,
“Satyadev Dubey made his theatre in Mumbai the crucible of a pan-Indian, pan-world theatre consciousness by producing plays translated from different Indian and European languages. This cross-pollination gave audiences the first glimmer of a larger Indian theatre sensibility. To date he is credited with directing and producing over a hundred theatre productions in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and English, many of which are considered landmarks in modern Indian theatre. The influence of his style of theatre can be found across the country.”
Satyadev Dubey with Sunil Shanbag, Sunila Pradhan and Amrish Puri during one of the rehearsals of “Aur Ek Garibo” written by Mahesh Elkunchwar. (Photo courtesy Facebook/Saurav Datta)
Legacy
He passed away on December 25, 2011 at the age of 75 in Mumbai, but it’s virtually impossible to encapsulate the legacy he leaves behind. He touched people’s hearts in so many different ways.
For Lata Sharma, who acted in only two of his plays but also took care of everything in his personal life from finances, health, and doctor visits, Dubey was a father figure.
“To someone else he was something else. He was a confidant, counsellor and so much more. And not everyone became actors out of their interactions with him, but they sure became better people. His influence went way beyond theatre. He was a friend, guide and mentor to lots of people who often gave sound advice on their regular lives. A man with a patient ear, Dubey Ji wasn’t judgmental and that’s what made him such a wonderful human being. I think those facets went along being a legendary theatre personality,” recalls Sharma.
From not knowing anything at all about Satyadev Dubey, I had moved to a place where I sort of understood why many legendary actors held him in such high regard. There is a lot more to learn about Dubey Ji, and in all honesty, this is only the beginning.
(Edited by Vinayak Hegde)
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As of yesterday, Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, recorded a mere 5 positive coronavirus cases, taking its tally to 113 active cases and 2,375 diagnosed cases. Mumbai, meanwhile, recorded 1,243 fresh cases yesterday, taking its overall case count to 92,988.
Considering it’s one of the most densely populated areas in the world with over a staggering 2,27,136 people per square kilometre, this is an incredible achievement. People here live cheek by jowl in houses located in narrow lanes spread over a mere 2.5 square kilometres. Each household has 8-10 people, as per the local municipal body. Moreover, there are 450 community toilets being used everyday with 80% of the population dependent on them.
The first positive case in Dharavi was recorded on 1 April 2020. By the end of April, the number of positive cases had jumped to 491 with a doubling period (number of positive cases doubling) of just 18 days, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). It was well on its way towards becoming a COVID-19 hotspot.
In May, Dharavi reported about 1,216 positive cases and 56 deaths as compared to 18 in the previous month. The following month, however, saw very few deaths and on an average the area saw fewer than 18 new cases per day with the highest single-day spike on 1 June with 34. By the end of June, however, the average doubling rate had increased to 108 days from 43 days in May.
Since the start of this month, the number of new cases has declined even further. On 7 July, for example, Dharavi recorded just a single case, noted the BMC. This month, Dharavi has seen a little over 65 new cases with the average doubling rate at 430 days.
According to the Union health ministry, the Maharashtra government and the BMC, working alongside local nonprofits, community leaders and common citizens, have been effectively able to bring down the COVID-19 spread in Dharavi.
Since the twin strategies of social distancing and lockdown do not work in an area like Dharavi where people live and work literally at an arm’s distance, here’s how this was managed.
1. Comprehensive testing: Four T model — Tracing, Tracking, Testing and Treating
As per recent reports, more than six lakh people have been screened in Dharavi so far. Irrespective of their symptoms, all patients were screened for fever. Also, their oxygen saturation levels were closely checked by doctors.
“We were very proactive in screening and testing residents. We never waited for them to come to us. In fact, we found out whether they were COVID-19 positive or not by going door-to-door, organising fever camps, senior citizen surveys and operating mobile vans, which helped us to identify patients at an early stage. In the past week, the number of cases have been in single digits,” says Assistant Commissioner Kiran Dighavkar, in charge of G north ward consisting of Dadar, Mahim and Dharavi, speaking to The Better India.
What are fever camps? “Fever camps are conducted by the BMC. High risk zones within Dharavi were identified, and with the help of doctors, nurses and ward boys, people living in these areas were screened and tested on the spot. Those who tested positive were sent to institutional quarantine facilities,” he notes.
On the subject of tracing, 47,500 households were covered by doctors and private clinics going door-to-door. When it came to tracking, more than 6 lakh people were screened since the lockdown first began. All possible contacts of patients or those with symptoms were tracked down extensively and shifted to quarantine facilities, notes the BMC.
Nearly 14,000 tests have been done so far in Dharavi, according to the Hindustan Times. Infrastructure had to be prepared in the slums for not only treatment, but also to provide people food all through the day. Only critical patients were moved outside Dharavi for admission to hospitals while 90% patients were treated inside the area, they added.
“To screen each of the households in Dharavi was nearly impossible. BMC staff in personal protection equipment (PPE) carried out the screening, often fainting due to the heat trapped in the narrow alleys,” notes a June 28 report in The Print.
Health personnel monitor people’s body temperature at Dharavi during the government-imposed nationwide lockdown. (Editorial credit: Manoej Paateel / Shutterstock.com)
2. Participation of private doctors
Manpower was definitely a concern in the BMC’s bid to conduct proactive screening in high risk zones and organise fever camps so the municipal body ended mobilizing all available ‘private’ practitioners.
Initially, 24 private doctors came forward and BMC provided them with PPE Kits, thermal scanners, pulse oximeters, masks, gloves and started door-to-door screening in high risk zones and all suspects were identified.
Soon, all private practitioners in the area were asked to open their clinics and attend to patients and communicate all suspected cases to the BMC, which eventually, went a step further and sanitised all the clinics of all these private practitioners and provided them all PPE, gloves etc all other logistical support, claims BMC.
3. Uninterrupted supply of goods and essential supplies to communities
“The BMC also distributed 25000+ grocery kits and 21000+ food packets for lunch and dinner separately within the containment zones so people stayed inside Dharavi and did not have the need to move out — thereby curbing the spread of the virus. Apart from this, food and grocery were also supplied and distributed free of cost by local MLA, MPs and corporators,” notes a document that the BMC shared with The Better India.
In addition, there were many non-profits, individual citizens and local community leaders who facilitated the distribution of food packets and groceries to residents.
“Police protection ensured no one was able to come out of the containment zone. We had identified a few community leaders in the area, whom we call community coordinators and they were given identity cards. These leaders would coordinate everything within the containment zone from helping identify which grocery and medical shops to keep open while high risk zones were completely closed off to facilitating any donation of essential commodities by those outside Dharavi. We, at the BMC, also sanitize all community toilets in the area at least 3-4 times a day everyday,” notes Assistant Commissioner Kiran Dighavkar.
“When we decided on containment zone measures and the appointment of community coordinators, they responded very well. Community coordinators would come forward for distribution of food or grocery packets. Also, locals have cooperated with us to shift themselves into institutional quarantine centres. Sometimes, they do it voluntarily,” notes another senior BMC official, who wishes to remain anonymous.
4. Quarantine Facilities
Since home quarantine was never an option, the focus was always on setting up of maximum institutional quarantine facilities covering all available schools, marriage halls, sports complexes etc. This ensured that patients didn’t have to scramble for beds in crowded public hospitals or get turned away from private ones.
The first large facility that the administration took over in Dharavi was the Rajiv Gandhi Sports Complex with 300 beds for asymptomatic patients or those with mild symptoms.
Following this step, other establishments like Prabhat Nursing Home and Family Care were taken over as well. “Soon, municipal schools as well Mahim Nature Park were taken over as isolation and quarantine facilities with a capacity of 3,800. Until June more than 8,500 were quarantined in such facilities…For providing critical care, the BMC took over five private hospitals in the area,” notes this report in The Print.
These facilities have community kitchens, where all three meals are served, 24/7 availability of doctors/nurses/medical staff, provisions for medicines, multivitamins and necessary medical equipment, claims the BMC.
The Census population of Dharavi is around 6.3 lakh. Apart from this, there are 1.5-2 lakh migrant workers.
“As per police records, some 69,000 people have left Dharavi through government channels and another 50,000 people left by other means like private vehicles, walking, etc. Overall, nearly 1.5 lakh people may have left during this period. Although that must have helped, it cannot be the only reason for Dharavi’s success. On the contrary, by June end, many people started coming back once unlocked measures were announced. Many factories have started to open up, but we have not seen any surge till now,” notes the senior BMC official, to TBI.
“Having said that, there is always a chance of these workers coming back and that the number of cases may once again rise. We cannot sit back and say it’s over. There is always a chance of a spike. We are not concentrating on how many cases are coming in. What we can do is identify them as early as possible and treat them,” says Kiran.
Last Friday, in a virtual press conference in Geneva, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the WHO acknowledged the city’s efforts to contain the outbreak in Dharavi.
“In the last six weeks cases have more than doubled. [However] there are many examples from around the world that have shown that even if the outbreak is very intense, it can still be brought back under control. And some of these examples are Italy, Spain and South Korea, and even in Dharavi — a densely packed area in the megacity of Mumbai — a strong focus on community engagement and the basics of testing, tracing, isolating and treating all those that are sick is key to breaking the chains of transmission and suppressing the virus.”
It’s imperative not to get carried away because as long as the virus wreaks havoc on the city, there is always a chance that Dharavi will get affected. Many parts of the country that were once considered ‘success stories’ have since struggled with newer outbreaks. But when everyone thought Dharavi would drown under the weight of this outbreak, it stood tall.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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The story of how Apurva Asrani (42), award-winning film editor and screenwriter, got his name is both interesting, and prophetic.
His parents first met at a cinema hall in Bengaluru in 1975 to watch the iconic Ramesh Sippy film Sholay. From thereon, they would meet discreetly at cinema halls since young couples back then couldn’t really date publicly.
Fast forward a few years later — Apurva’s mother was pregnant and his father, a cabin crew with Air India, met his hero and legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray, on one of his flights. Inspired by the encounter, he returned home and announced that he would name his unborn child after Apu, one of Ray’s most iconic characters from the ‘The Apu Trilogy’ — Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956) and The World of Apu (1959).
The duo was blessed with a son on 21 March 1978, and as decided, he was named Apurva.
While his early school days were spent in Bengaluru, Apurva would eventually go on to study and live in Mumbai. It was in the city’s Jai Hind College, where he found a creative outlet.
Still in college, he got his first gig working as an assistant on the popular Bollywood countdown show BPL Oye! on Channel [V] in 1995. Picking up skills like video editing, he would soon graduate to doing promos for feature films.
“One of the early promos I did was for a film directed by Ram Gopal Varma called Daud (1997). He was very happy with the way we had collaborated and that’s when he offered me the editing gig for Satya. I was only 19 at the time of editing Satya in 1997, but Ramu had a reputation for taking chances on fresh talent, and took a massive chance on me,” says Apurva.
With the exception of Urmila Matondkar and Paresh Rawal, who played a cameo, everyone working on the film was new and out to prove a point. Apurva recalls what it was like, working in an atmosphere that didn’t feel like it was being guided by old experienced hands.
“From Anurag Kashyap and Saurabh Shukla, who wrote the screenplay, to Manoj (Bajpayee) playing his first lead role as the iconic gangster Bhikhu Mhatre, a lot of people owe their careers to him. Even the music directors — Vishal Bharadwaj and Sandeep Chowta — weren’t well known then, and this resulted in a very charged atmosphere on set. Everyone working on the set was passionate and hungry to prove themselves. ” he recalls.
“I first met Apurva about 23 years back when he was editing for Satya. He was 19, intelligent and I was impressed by the fact that someone this young was editing such an ambitious film. I was quite curious to know him, understand him, where he was coming from and what Ramu saw in him. That’s how it all started,” recalls Manoj, speaking to TBI.
During the shooting of Satya, which started sometime in August 1997, Mumbai was under the vice-like grip of the underworld which extended to the film industry. Gangsters would supposedly extort money or demand protection money from film producers.
On the first week of shooting Satya, Ram Gopal Varma’s friend and film producer Gulshan Kumar was shot dead for allegedly refusing to pay ‘protection money’. Apurva recalls how the incident shook everyone up on set, but also remembers that it completely changed the approach of filming Satya from that point onwards.
That change in approach came in one particular scene early on in the film when the gangster played by Sushant Singh, Pakya, comes to Satya and tries to extort money for the neighbourhood orchestra. Pakya even flashes a blade in front of Satya to threaten him.
“Instead of giving into his demands, Satya (JD Chakravarthy) takes the blade and slashes Pakya’s face, who falls to the floor with blood on his face screaming in agony. There is a horror in that shot which we hadn’t seen in earlier Bollywood gangster flicks. It reflected what everyone was feeling after the death of Gulshan Kumar,” he recalls.
The process of making the film was very organic. Scenes were literally being written on set and that organic process followed into the editing room. Since Apurva was seeing the process play out on the set, he didn’t follow a very regimented approach to editing the film. In the edit room, both Ram Gopal Varma and him would play around with how the scenes were constructed. Take the example of how the film opens.
The opening monologue of the film was a complete creation of the editing room with a voiceover talking about how Mumbai never sleeps, the class disparity and the underworld.
Aside from Ram Gopal Varma, who gave him a free hand, there were stalwarts like Gulzaar, who wrote the lyrics to Satya, and ace filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, who would watch the edited footage and give their valuable feedback. Working in their presence and taking their feedback really guided how the Satya team approached the film.
The Craft of Editing a Film
In a glowing article about Satya on the 20th anniversary of its release, film critic, Sukanya Verma writes, “Shot in a blue-brown palette, the clever compositions — a mix of cool camera angles, hand-held view, long shots and noir lighting — capture the stifling complexity and conflicting emotions of its characters.”
Most film reviews are predominantly focussed on the actors, directors, cinematographers and music, of course. Despite its centrality to the filmmaking process, there is barely a line or two about the editing process, and it’s usually about how it determines the pace of a film.
“The pace of a film is just one element of editing. According to me, the editing table is where the film is actually made. What comes into the editing room is hours of footage ranging from 8 to 10. There have been films, where I worked with nearly 14-15 hours of footage. You have several scenes that make up a film ranging from 80-100. Each scene is divided into shots. Each shot is filmed several times till the director gets a satisfactory take. Each shot will have a minimum of 4 takes or sometimes 25 depending on what is achieved,” says Apurva.
What the editor first does is start to assemble the scene. To assemble the scene, they have to choose takes with the right moment, expression or tone of the actor. They (the film editor) have to take into consideration what character has to be maintained through the film.
Right from the word go, they’re sifting through hours of footage and are heavily invested in the story and characters. They have to choose the best of elements like the actor’s correct tone, performance, lighting, camera work and direction from one particular take and sometimes compromise on one aspect to highlight the other.
“These are choices editors make. Then you construct the scene and have the choice to say, I would like to open the scene with a close up even though I have this master shot of everyone sitting in a room. I’ll begin with a close up of a character, and slowly reveal the other characters in the room one by one. You can also edit out dialogues or lines that are not necessary. Sometimes, you get rid of entire scenes because it’s overstating something. A film too verbose can be sometimes hailed as an understated one because of the editor’s call. It’s in our hands how to construct a scene. Out of 10 shots, as an editor, I can just take one shot on a single take because the actor has held it so well. When the scenes are ready, you put them together and construct a film,” informs Apurva.
Apurva Asrani on the editing table. (Image courtesy Instagram)
From Script to Screen
One can edit a film rooted in the script or a film can evolve from a script like Satya, Snip (2000), the Indian English gangster film which won Apurva and collaborator Suresh Pai a National Award, Chhal (2002) or Shahid (2012), a film about a real-life human-rights and criminal lawyer starring Rajkummar Rao and directed by Hansal Mehta.
For example, a film like Shahid, the written script begins and ends very differently from what you see on the screen. The screenplay was non-linear, and when the director Hansal Mehta first showed the film to his peers, many weren’t moved by it emotionally.
“I took the call to make the film more linear, which was a challenge because it wasn’t shot that way. To open with protagonist Shahid Azmi’s death, which many would say is giving away the ending, is a choice the editor makes saying this film is not a mystery thriller. This film is trying to evoke a very different reaction from the people. It’s not about whether Shahid died or not, but about why did he die, how did he die and what was his life about. It changed the whole focus of the screenplay. If a film communicates a compelling story, and it’s a gripping narrative, I think the editor has done a good job,” says Apurva.
Hansal Mehta, the director of Shahid, had this to say about Apurva’s contribution to its screenplay in an interview to India Today just after the film’s release.
“We first wrote a complete linear draft of the script. I showed it to actors and stars and they found it too long, boring and simple. Another writer asked me to make it more convoluted so we then wrote a non-linear draft. We shot that draft but in sequence. Then I took it for editing to Apurva Asrani. He is an old collaborator. I got him back from a self-imposed exile in Bangalore. He took my material and said, ‘Give me some time with it.’ We initially tried to make a non-linear cut. Apurva was like, ‘This is not working. Let me cut the film and line-up the story. Let’s communicate it as simply as possible.’ He shaped the narrative and that’s why I have given him a screenplay credit too,” says Hansal.
“Editing is one of the most important aspects of filmmaking. Depending on how an editor sees the film content, they can either make or break it. They must have an in-depth understanding of storytelling, the narrative, shots, all the technicalities of cinema, performances, beats and rhythms. A director must have an editor’s sense while making a film and an editor must have a director’s sense of filmmaking while editing. Apurva showed a lot of promise in the beginning, and has gone on to do great things since. He has received his share of accolades. Seeing his success, everybody has realised how right Ramu was to take a chance on him,” says Manoj.
Manoj Bajpayee and Apurva Asrani (Image courtesy Instagram)
Apurva has also gone beyond the film medium and edited four episodes of the web series ‘Made in Heaven.’ He was brought in by filmmaker Zoya Akhtar and writer-producer Nitya Mehra because they were creating a gay protagonist that hadn’t really been done before.
“They wanted me on the editing team to ensure they got the tonality of the gay man right. Working with Zoya was extremely challenging, as she is an extremely astute filmmaker, but it was truly gratifying as well. The fundamental difference between working in films and web series is that in the latter you have 8 to 10 episodes to go into details. Working on a web series is very liberating. When we want to explore characters, parallel characters, sub plots, you have very little wiggle room in films. In a web series, you can paint a very composite picture showing the different layers, sub-plots, delve into them and come back to where you want it to be without making it look like a digression. I genuinely think that they are the future of storytelling,” he says.
Apurva has even written two web series. One is almost completely shot. It is a courtroom drama about the role of the woman in Indian society and will be out on a major OTT platform very soon, says Apurva.
Aligarh & LGBTQ+ Rights
It’s safe to suggest that Aligarh (2015) is probably his most significant project till date. The Hansal Mehta-directed film about a professor, played by Manoj, who is outed for being gay and thrown out of Aligarh University, is where Apurva made his debut as full-fledged screenwriter, while also editing the film.
“As a gay man, I wanted to write dialogues for a character who isn’t defined by labels or the ideas that the world has thrust upon us. Thankfully, I had Manoj, who made whatever I wrote even better on screen by improvising and adding stuff to it, which is what great actors like him do. He made me look very good in Aligarh as a writer. Manoj was a lead actor in my first film as an editor, as an screenwriter and will star in my directorial debut as well which is being pre-produced,” informs Apurva.
“I hope he finishes that movie soon. He’s quite the perfectionist,” quips Manoj.
Coming back to Aligarh, what Apurva was soon faced with is a conflict of interest that exists between screenwriter and editor. As an editor, he follows a certain principle.
“When I look at the rushes (a film production term used to describe raw footage from a day’s shooting), that’s the script. Whenever I receive the footage, what was written in the original script becomes somewhat less important because it evolves when shot in front of a camera. An actor brings something to the performance, the director has his moments of magic on set or bad weather forces you to shoot indoors. A bad actor forces you to reject a scene or a great actor makes a terrible scene wonderful. As an editor, your rushes are your script and not necessarily the written word,” notes Apurva.
When it came to Aligarh, he admits to having his ego hurt when the footage came through considering there were several changes from his original script. He was trying to hold onto his script because it’s the first ever he had written and that it needed to come out right.
“I had a fight going in my head donning the role of both screenwriter and editor. Hansal saw this struggle, asked me to take a break and get refreshed. Even though I asked Hansal to get someone else to edit it, he refused. During my break from Aligarh, I edited ‘Waiting’ directed by Anu Menon starring Kalki Koechelin and Naseeruddin Shah. This was completely different to Aligarh in terms of style, performance and filmmaking. When I finished that project, I felt ready to edit Aligarh. So, I came back to Aligarh purely as an editor and never referred to my written script,” he recalls.
Plus with filmmaking, there is so much evolution and interpretation in every single process. If one is going to be rigid about an earlier interpretation, it stops the growth of the film.
“Manoj’s performance will be counted among the best portrayals of a gay character. As for getting them to interpret the characters, Apurva’s script deserves credit for that. It provided enough information for the actors to take cues from. A professional actor soaks up everything and then interprets the material and brings his performance,” says Hansal Mehta in an interview with Scroll.in in October 2015.
Going beyond the process of making it, the promotion for Aligarh saw Apurva coming out publicly as a gay man and donning the role of an advocate for LGBTQ rights.
“When we were promoting Aligarh, I was on Barkha Dutt’s show on NDTV. It was a live show. Hansal, Manoj and myself were there. I hadn’t publicly come out as a gay man at that point in time although it’s not like I have ever hidden it. On the show, we were talking about the protagonist Professor SR Siras and what he went through. I almost found myself talking about him like the other straight people on the panel. Despite their best intentions, I felt it would carry so much more weight if a gay man said it. Everything I wrote in Aligarh, it genuinely came from my own struggle as a gay man. I felt that it was hypocrisy to conceal that fact. Instead of holding back, I came out,” he recalls.
Since Aligarh released, followed by Made in Heaven a couple of years later, many struggling to come out to their loved ones have reached out to Apurva. Even in an interview with Bombay Times in 2018, he spoke of how his parents really struggled with him coming out to them at the age of 20, although things have vastly improved since.
Today, he lives with his partner, Siddhant, in a house they bought in Goa.
For 13 years we pretended to be cousins so we could rent a home together. We were told ‘keep curtains drawn so neighbors don’t know ‘what’ you are’. We recently bought our own home. Now we voluntarily tell neighbors we are partners 💕. It’s time LGBTQ families are normalised too. pic.twitter.com/kZ9t9Wnc7i
“In the early days, my first impressions of him were of a man who was intelligent, but not very comfortable with the situation he was going through. There was a lot of conflict in his life. He was desperate to come out, express his own homosexual identity and be counted as someone for his ability more than anything else. Apruva’s existence and his own being also proves a fact I have always believed in that sexuality doesn’t determine the ability of the person. In my mind, Apurva is not only a champion of the LGBTQ movement in India, but also one of the finest editing and screenplay minds in our country,” recalls Manoj.
Apurva, meanwhile, talks about how there is an appearance of social progress in the film industry, but very few are out of the closet. “There are so many actors, filmmakers and media people who are gay in the industry, and and working very hard to hide their truth. I know because they have made passes at me. If you don’t respond favourably to their overtures you could get blacklisted, or canards could be spread about you in blind items,” he says.
But he stresses that he doesn’t have any time for all that negativity.
“There are far more people who are accepting of who I am in this world, which is why I have been able to come this far.”
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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Siva Sankar, the founder of Noval India, believes that India’s waste management sector is primarily taken care of by two factions — earth-friendly NGOs that rely on volunteers to keep the surroundings clean and mega projects by the government or private companies that treat the garbage.
With both factions, he sees a problem of long-term sustainability.
While there is always doubt on how long volunteers will keep the momentum going, the waste treatment plants by the government often do not run on full capacity or cannot be fitted everywhere due to space crunch.
In 2014, when the Central government had launched its flagship Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, many societies were asked to set up their composting units to treat wet waste at source to reduce the burden on landfills. Several municipal corporations had to introduce fines for societies (with more than 100 apartments) who refused to install the machine citing cost, maintenance and space issues.
Having experienced this first-hand, Siva, an alumnus of IIM Kozhikode, came up with a unique subscription model last October.
As per this model, any society from Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Kerala can subscribe to the Mumbai-based startup’s waste management services at a nominal cost of Rs 180 (per household) per month.
In return, you get a share of the revenue generated by selling compost and dry waste.
Noval was founded in 2014 to provide waste management solutions to societies, corporates, and educational institutions. Along with selling their machines, they also run the subscription model to suit people’s needs in a more feasible way.
“Once you subscribe with us, we own your waste. Right from the collection, segregation, recycling, and composting, our staff takes care of everything. We set up a couple of machines in your premises so that no waste goes outside the building,” Siva tells The Better India.
Under its model called ‘Green Lease’, the startup, which is registered under the Kerala Startup Mission, has signed the contract with 72 societies in different cities, 28 of which are presently using the services.
“Due to the lockdown, we had to halt our services. We service around 8,000 families and treat up to 12 tonnes of household waste daily,” he adds.
How This Model Works
The only criterion is to have 100 families living in your building. Noval’s largest customer is an apartment complex with 5,000 flats.
The machines, which are manufactured by Noval, don’t need much space. They can be fitted on the terrace as well, “For 150 households, we need an area of only 150 sq ft.”
The startup gives a seven-day free demonstration to the society, based on which the residential committee can sign the contract for a minimum of three years. However, the society has the option to discontinue at no cancellation charges with one month’s notice.
The startup then procures a NOC (no objection certificate) from the local municipal authority to set up the machines, including aerated composter, plastic shredder, incinerator and conveyor belt.
“The shredder shreds plastic waste, leaves and coconut waste. The composting machine converts wet waste into compost, and the incinerator treats sanitary waste. Meanwhile, the conveyor belt further segregates the dry waste into plastic, metal, and paper. We sell dry waste to local recyclers and compost to farmers. Half of the revenue is shared with the society members,” says Siva.
Though the machines run on power, they use minimal units to process the waste, “It takes ten units (Rs 70) to process 500 kilos of waste,” he adds.
Ronnie, a member of Purva Parkridge in Bengaluru, says, “We have 149 villas, and ever since we took the subscription in February this year, all our 100 kilos of waste is completely managed by Noval. This model certainly takes away the need for owning a compost machine and transfers the process to an open model with the experts.”
Besides helping societies go zero-waste, this one-of-its-kind model also generates jobs for informal waste pickers. The staff is hired on payroll and earn up to Rs 15,000 every month. This model ensures them a stable income and also provides a hygienic environment and dignity of labour.
“We are provided with a full-body PPE suit and gloves, and we come in contact with the waste for only a few minutes. The automatic machines take care of everything once we deposit the waste. It is a very safe and hygienic process that takes not more than two hours per society,” 45-year-old Asha Mohite, one of the operators from Mumbai, tells The Better India.
India generates nearly 62 million tonnes of waste every year, of which less than 50 per cent is recycled. With the mounting garbage crisis, solutions like the one provided by Siva and his team are not only feasible but also affordable.
On 23 July, Satish Sangameswaran, a resident of Ranka Heights in Bengaluru, tweeted a picture of two men blocking the doorways of two apartments with corrugated metal sheets. The flats are occupied by a woman and two children, and an elderly couple.
The houses were sealed after the domestic help of one of the houses was infected with the coronavirus. The image went viral and received a lot of flak from netizens.
“BBMP sealing done in our building for a confirmed Covid case. Lady with 2 small children, next-door neighbours are an aged couple. What if there is a fire, @BBMPCOMM? Understand the need for containment, but this is an extremely dangerous fire hazard – please address urgently,” read the tweet.
Sangameswaran also pointed out how the metal sheets would make it impossible to supply the families with groceries and other essential items.
Soon, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad took to Twitter and apologised for the “over-enthusiasm of local staff”.
“We are committed to address any issues that result in stigma. Apologies for the over-enthusiasm of the local staff,” he wrote on Twitter. “We are committed to treat all persons with dignity. The purpose of containment is to protect the infected and to ensure uninfected are safe,” he tweeted.
I have ensured removing of this barricades immediately. We are committed to treat all persons with dignity. The purpose of containment is to protect the infected and to ensure uninfected are safe. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/JbPRbmjspK
— N. Manjunatha Prasad,IAS (@BBMPCOMM) July 23, 2020
The barricades were removed, and the matter was resolved quickly. However, this entire incident brought to light several issues, right from disregarding the guidelines set by the government authorities to reinforcing stigma around COVID-19.
Manoj Kumar Meena, BBMP East Zone coordinator clarified that sealing the door of a family with positive cases is not a part of their protocol.
“Closing the door of an apartment is never our way of containment. Access to the apartment is restricted, and others in the same place of residence are asked to be under strict home quarantine. The Joint Commissioner will serve a notice to the concerned people behind this at the earliest,” he told Indian Express.
As per the guidelines issued by BBMP, after the health team from BBMP authorises home isolation for the COVID-19 patient, a notice will be posted on the house door. The team will also stamp the hands of the patients, specifying the dates of quarantine for 17 days. The apartment committee will have to ensure their compliance with the rules.
While guidelines to seal houses or apartments have been issued by the Centre, state governments and local municipal corporations are ensuring additional measures to contain the spread of transmission.
Guidelines from Central Government
The health status of those under home isolation should be monitored by the field staff/surveillance teams through personal visits along with a dedicated call centre to follow up the patients on a daily basis.
The clinical status of each case shall be recorded by the field staff/call centre (body temperature, pulse rate and oxygen saturation). The field staff will guide the patient on measuring these parameters and provide the instructions to patients and their caregivers.
Details about patients under home isolation should also be updated on COVID-19 portal and facility app. Senior State and District officials should monitor the records update.
A mechanism to shift patients in case of violation or need for treatment has to be established and implemented.
All family members and those in contact with the patient shall be monitored and tested as per protocol by the field staff.
Here’ a look at protocols from some other cities:
1. Mumbai
The protocol followed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) depends on the gravity of the situation or number of cases. If a resident from society is found COVID-19 positive, only that floor will be sealed instead of the entire building.
However, the entire building will be sealed if it comes under areas with high-risk contact areas.
“We do not seal individual houses. We put up a board at the building entrance mentioning the house number and wing of the house along with measures to be followed. Once the patients recover, we follow a thorough test and depending on the results; we remove the board,” Vishwas Shankar, Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Zone 7), BMC informs The Better India.
Once the signboard is up, the BMC officials will explain the isolation and social distancing protocols to the building committee who will ensure that the rules are strictly followed. Moreover, essential supplies will have to be delivered to the society entrance gate, from where the committee can arrange for them to be delivered to the doorstep of the quarantined.
In case of any complaints or queries, residents can call the helplines 108 and 1916 or reach out to the ward officials and war rooms.
2. Ahmedabad
Image Courtesy: Darshil Gandhi
Like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, which is witnessing a spike in COVID-19 cases, does not seal the house of a patient.
“If the building has more than ten cases, we declare it as a micro-containment area by putting up a 10×10 hoarding at the entrance. For just one or two cases, we attach a sticker at the front door of the house,” Bhavin Solanki, Medical Officer of Health, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) tells The Better India.
Darshil Gandhi and his family were tested positive for the virus and put under home quarantine two weeks ago. He says, “The AMC officials put a red sticker on my door that says we are under quarantine. After 14 days, if my tests are negative, they will put a green sticker indicating it is safe for us to move around.”
3. Delhi
A medical officer from the district administration team visits the house of a confirmed COVID-19 patient with appropriate PPE, they stamp the patient’s left hand, and gets a certificate signed.
They will take a photo of the certificate as a record and place a sticker of home isolation for the affected persons outside the residence. The sticker will mention the dates for isolation.
Common spaces of the building such as lifts or stairs will be sanitised twice a day with one per cent sodium hypochlorite solution, and neighbours can help them with any essential items like medicines, rations, vegetables, etc. by leaving these outside the door of their house.
As per a report in The Times of India, for patients under home isolation in Chennai, the city municipal corporation seals the house with asbestos sheets and pastes a brown sticker so that the locality is aware of the situation at all times.
Please note that home isolation in cases of COVID-19 cases is only for mild or pre-symptomatic persons.
Read revised guidelines for home isolation of very mild/pre-symptomatic/asymptomatic COVID-19 cases of the Central government here.
For many of us, living away from our parents, home is a concoction of bittersweet emotions. It’s rewarding and exciting but also, frightening and lonesome. I know because this is my lived reality, and it’s the price I have paid for the dream job in Bengaluru.
But, I have also had help to survive the recurring bouts of homesickness.
Almost every night after returning from a long day of work, I would stop at a roadside food stall, where an ever-smiling man would make panipuris, or customized delicious balls of wonder.
Unlike most in the area, he was the only one who would call it by a familiar name — phuchka! A single bite of the crispy wheat flour dumpling stuffed with spiced mashed potatoes and an extra drizzle of lemon juice, and I would be back home.
Be it the first taste of street food with my mother, the first time I spent my pocket money, the first date or the first class bunk in college, a humble phuchka-wala has always been the constant companion. So, even far away from home, Bengaluru-based Amit Kumar, aka Amit Da’s phuchka, would bring back the tangy, sweet and spicy reveries in just a mouthful.
However, a lot has changed in the past few months. The corner stands empty, much like the rest of the city, as faced with the pandemic many of us either had to retreat indoors or leave for home.
Amit had been selling phuchkas, or panipuri, for the past two years. A native of Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, he, along with his elder brother, Kailash, left home for Bengaluru in pursuit of better opportunities. Many from their village had hit big metropolitan cities to set up their own food business, and they wanted the same.
“It’s not easy to leave your family behind but we had to for the sake of survival. We would live in a rented place and after paying the rent and covering other production expenses, we would send the remaining money back home,” says Amit, who along with his brother supported a family of five.
The duo earn an average of Rs 200 to Rs 500 daily, and pay a monthly rent of Rs 5000.
“My brother has three kids and this business also supports two elderly parents. Whatever we earned was never enough, but at least it was something. Now, we have gone down to zero and have exhausted our savings as well,” adds Amit. He and his brother left the city in June to move back home, as the lockdown culminated into the shutdown of all business, especially those conducted in temporary installments like thelas.
Amit’s condition is replicated all across the country, with many street food vendors grappling with the changing dynamics of social existence. Amid the COVID-19 situation, while most businesses withdrew and adapted to work from home operations, numerous small-businesses like these suffered a brutal shutdown, pushing many to the brink of poverty.
Panipuri Sellers and Their Struggle For Survival
Source: Dilip Sahu
Kolkata’s famed Dilip Sahu from Maharaja Chat Centre, at the juncture of Vivekanand Park, is yet another casualty. Known as Dilip Da, this phuchka-wala is extremely popular across the city with media organisations reviewing and covering his work multiple times. Over the years his stall had become a common gathering spot for students and young professionals.
And yet, all the fame could not protect him from the ravages of the pandemic.
“In our line of business, ups and downs are common but in the last 40 years of my work I have never encountered this level of helplessness. The last time that my business took a hit was during demonetisation, but it eventually picked up. Now, it’s completely absent. There is zero money coming in, and my savings are also at the edge of exhaustion,” adds the 55-year-old, who is a diabetic and supports a family of four, including his wife who is recovering from cancer.
Prior to COVID-19, his daily earning would be an average of Rs 500 to Rs 2000, most of which would be spent on his business, living cost and medicines for his wife and himself. He shares that every month he spends almost Rs 5,000 on medicines alone and with no income for the past 4 months, the family has been in a tight crunch.
“I have a son who used to work with me at the stall but luckily he also is a skilled driver. But, due to the lockdown both these options were closed, although with future relaxations, we are hoping his driving gigs can help us sustain. The government ration has also stopped now. Last month we received some 15 kg of rice and 10 kg of wheat but including me, there are 5 mouths to feed and in no time this will be over. I don’t know what to do after that,” says Dilip, with a shaky voice, over the phone.
Source: Dilip Sahu
Starvation vs Contagion
A recent World Bank blog, estimated the global impact of COVID-19 on global poverty and suggested that more than 49 million people across the world will be pushed to extreme poverty in 2020. Its June 2020 India Development Update (IDU) draft, warned the government of an impending reality, whereby several households are likely to slip back into poverty due to the income and job losses owing to the pandemic.
Raj Singh, a resident of Bhind, Madhya Pradesh, fears he might be one of the countless casualties of COVID-19, not because of its direct implications on health but its economic consequences.
“I moved to Delhi in 2004 with my entire family of 15 people, and set up a golgappa stall near Shastri park with my brothers. Back home we had nothing, no land for farming or any other opportunity to earn a livelihood. We put everything at stake when we moved here,” shares Raj, who rented a place for Rs 8,000 in the city and was managing to save each penny to secure the lives of his children.
Unfortunately at the break of the pandemic, life as he knew it changed forever. Fearing homelessness, along with his entire family he participated in the exodus, by traveling almost 400 kilometers back home, on foot.
“It took us almost 3 days of walking night and day to reach home. The kids cried and our elder parents suffered. But, what could we do? Till April, we managed to earn nothing and couldn’t even pay the rent. We would’ve anyway been thrown out into the streets,” he says.
Back in Bhind, the only possession he had was a home. In the last few months, he has managed to get help from relatives and neighbours, but even that is slowly fading away. Talking about his current situation, he shares, “At first people felt bad, empathetic and helped us with food and money. But, now even they need help. There is zero income coming home and we have so many mouths to feed. And on top of that, I am also under a lot of debt. Somehow, now the only way is to go back to the city and start earning to pay back all the money.”
When asked if he fears contagion, he says, “When people have to choose between dying of disease or starvation, they choose the former. There is no other option for us, even if it means exposing ourselves.”
Help the Panipuri Sellers When You Can
“I stay in the same lane and Yadavji has been around much longer than I have — even before I was born — and so I have known him all my life. He was always there in any weather — sunny, cold, and in rains — from 5-9 pm. [The] best part is, he prepared his pani puri from bottled water and the taste of it stayed the same,” a Mumbai resident Girish Agarwal said to The Bombay Times, in this report.
He was speaking about a famous pani puri seller at Rungta Lane, Nepean Sea Road, Bhagwati Yadav who recently succumbed to COVID-19. Bhagwati has been selling in the area for over 46 years and on his unfortunate demise, patrons like Girish launched a fundraising campaign to help out his family. According to them it is a tribute of sorts and their expression of love and appreciation towards Bhagwati.
Having teamed up with Ketto, a crowdsourcing platform, Girish posted a message on the fundraiser page and within the first day itself was able to raise almost Rs 40,000. By the second day, the campaign had received help from all across the city, as well as from the UK and the US. Over 3 lakhs was raised and sent to his family in Azamgarh, as a token of help.
Incidents like these remind us how a single thought and motivated action of a man, can truly contribute to transform the lives of many. Be it through crowdfunding or social media posts, anyone can initiate the wave of positive change that can impact these small businesses and save the lives that are at stake.
“We have always ensured a high level of hygiene through the years and with the COVID-19 situation, we have increased those measures as well. From gloves to bottled drinking water for the tok jol (tamarind water), we are making sure our customers get the best quality food. But, I also understand the level of anxiety among people due to the current situation, and now we are caught in the middle of it. Small businesses like ours are invisible to the government also, so no help seems to be coming from there. All we can do now, is just pray that we manage to stay alive till the next day,” shares Dilip.
Nestor Rangel, a 52-year-old agriculturist, and his team, have helped 500 families in his native village of St Estevam to convert fallow and unused land into productive organic paddy fields.
Like most villages in Goa, the picturesque village on the river Mandovi was once a prime target for real estate developers looking at parcels of arable land lying fallow, to build concrete commercial and residential establishments. The village was even earmarked by developers for a coal transportation carriageway.
Nestor’s successful model of community farming, which began in earnest during the kharif season of 2018, is being seen as a means of obstructing the rapid conversion of farmland into concrete jungles. This has spawned similar initiatives in different Goan villages with local communities mindful of the need to protect their land and ecology.
Nestor Rangel giving a talk.
Starting the Journey
An electronic engineer by trade, Nestor spent most of his life away from St Estevam in cities like Mumbai and subsequently Vadodara, where he was the manager of a factory owned by a Japanese multinational corporation AIWA manufacturing consumer electronics. In 2002, the factory shut down with the Japanese MNC closing shop around the world.
After the company shut down, he returned to Goa to open an electronics service centre and showroom dealing in consumer electronic products. With service centres in Margao and Panaji, he had about 40-odd employees working for him.
Everything changed in 2007, he decided to shut shop and venture into farming. Just before getting out of the electronics business, Nestor bought a 7-acre strip of land in Thane, a village in Goa’s Sattari Taluka. Today, this “strip of land” which extends upto 40 acres, includes a dairy, goat farm, a mango plantation of 700+ trees and a massive cashew orchard.
However, after Nestor began expanding his farm in 2007, Father Bismarque Dias, an activist priest once known for taking on the state’s notorious land mafia, urged him to bring back farming to St Estevam. “He was always after me to start a community farm project in St. Estevam, and visited my farm many times,” he recalls.
For the past four decades, residents of the village had given up farming to take up more lucrative work aboard ships sailing abroad or in cities like Mumbai.
“Knowing of my involvement in agriculture, he wanted me to do something in St Estevam. Land all over Goa is being bought and occupied by people from outside the state, who are constructing massive structures atop these pristine fields. Our fields have been lying fallow for 30-40 years since most locals work on ships sailing abroad or in Mumbai. Most Goans are hardly dependent on agriculture. However, If we don’t practice farming, the government will say that the land is merely lying vacant, take it away and sell it to the highest bidder. We decided to fight back by cultivating our lands,” mentions Nestor.
Nestor Rangel
Khazan Farming, Paddy & Comunidade
One way of bringing back agriculture to this picturesque river island was to revert to tradition. Past generations of Goans had long practiced an estuarine agriculture system called Khazan, “a carefully designed topo-hydro-engineered agro-aquacultural ecosystem mainly based on the regulation salinity and tides,” states a report in Down to Earth magazine.
“Khazans are reclaimed lands from the river or the sea. A created network of bunds protects the agricultural fields and adjoining villages from tidal flows,” notes this description.
One crop which can grow in these saline conditions is paddy. “It’s a pretty versatile crop, which can grow in saltish and brackish water. So, we decided to take up paddy cultivation since we also receive sufficient amounts of rain. This was sometime in the 2017-18 kharif season, and for the community project we took up 5 lakh square metres,” says Nestor.
Underpinning the community-level exercise led by Nestor and his team, was a mechanical cultivation process for ploughing, transplanting and harvesting, considering prohibitively high labour costs and manpower shortages. Helping them in this endeavour were Father George Quadros, a pioneer of mechanised paddy cultivation in South Goa, the State agricultural department and its subsidiary Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA).
“We have gone into total mechanisation working with paddy and concentrating on the fallow lands of Goa. More specifically, we are working with the transplanter to take away the drudgery, high cost and non-availability of labour. Farmers get their fields ploughed and ready, we as service providers, bring the transplanter to their fields. The transplanter covers one acre per hour, which is tremendous and saves the farmer 50% on their original cost. There are not enough service providers at the moment, but once this grows agriculture in Goa will be more or less community based,” says Father George, who is the project director at Don Bosco Loutolim Society.
For the project, the community employed transplanting machines manufactured by Kubota, a Japanese company, in which they have to put seedlings in trays. These trays are then loaded into the transplanter machine, which picks up the seedlings and transfers them onto the land. It can cover about 30,000 square metres in about 8 hours with just two persons operating it and thus cuts down on labour costs. No chemical fertilizers or pesticides were used in the process, and for harvesting they employed a harvester machine.
The St Estevam Community Project (Image courtesy Facebook)
“To purchase this equipment, we needed subsidies from the government. The only time we used labour was for de-weeding, an important part of the process since weeds end up taking up nutrition meant for your rice. Most people use chemicals for de-weeding, but we decided not to because there is a lot of biodiversity in our fields like snakes, crocodiles, fish, etc. Instead of putting them at risk, we decided to weed manually,” says Nestor.
It’s a bit on the expensive side, but the community was going for an organic project. Labour for weeding came from Sattari. After the cashew season came to end in May, women labourers working on Nestor’s farm in Thane had no employment. He put 10 of them to work on the community farm in St Estevam, driving them 40 km each way on his truck. Each of these women got about Rs 30,000-35,000 after they helped with de-weeding.
“In our first harvest, we got about 75,000 kg of paddy. There are agencies that procure paddy from farmers at government approved price which is about Rs 20 per kg. Selling it at that price, farmers lose money because their cost of cultivation works out to around Rs 4.5-5 per square metre. Without subsidies, it goes upto Rs 8-9 per square metre. If we sell the paddy as is to a government agency, we lose money. Instead, we decided to process it and convert that paddy into rice. The rice we grow is a nutritious brown colored variety called Jyothi. I took this rice to a mill in Maharashtra’ Sindhudurg district, which helped us convert paddy into rice. From the total amount of paddy, they extracted about 60% into rice. The rice wasn’t polished to retain its nutritional value. After we processed the rice, we packaged it and sold it all over the state for Rs 60 per kg,” informs Nestor.
“Communities in Goa have come together to farm their lands. If communities don’t come together, mechanisation doesn’t work since the use of such equipment requires big areas. Mechanisation saves time, cost and brings efficiency to the whole process,” says Father George.
Emphasis on mechanisation.
Capital Generation & the Comunidade
Capital for this entire project came from the village residents. Historically, Goans practiced a distinct form of community farming called the gaonkaria system which the Portuguese colonists overhauled and rechristened into what is known today as comunidade.
Land was collectively owned by the village and parceled out by an administrative unit at the local community level. At a community level they would allocate land to a family where they could build a house or farm to sustain their family. Each family was allocated about an acre or so by the core administrative unit, which handled the leasing out of the land to its residents. The land could not be leased out to non-residents. If a woman married a man from another village, she would lose her gaonkari (village resident) status, and would have to register as a gaonkari in her husband’s village.
“When India reclaimed Goa from the Portuguese, they brought in their rules and unfortunately the person who was tilling the land now became a tenant. Earlier, if you didn’t farm on the land for two-three years, it would go back to the community, which would reallocate that land to somebody else. Once community owned lands, they were now under individual tenants. People have their names on a land document called Form I & XIV, which marks them out as tenants. Out to make a quick buck, many sell off the land to the highest bidder. Naturally, the old rule of giving the land back to the community went away. That’s one of the reasons why farming stopped in Goa,” informs Nestor.
Backed by the entire village, Nestor and his team collected money from the people. Even his family are tenants on one acre of comunidade land.
“As per the landholding on Form I and IV, we took Rs 3.50 per person per square metre. If somebody has 1,000 square metres, they would give Rs 3500. All this money was collected under ‘Ilha Verde Farmers’ Club’. There were about four of us organising everything in the club because most didn’t engage in farming,” he says.
Everyone in the village is part of the farmers’ club. Each one paid the group Rs 3.50 per square metre as per their landholding to start the work since they didn’t have any other source of capital. This is how they generated capital.
“After processing the paddy into brown rice, we managed to pay back everybody and there was some additional money left in hand (Rs 2-3 lakh as per some estimates), which we used for repair works of structures like Manos, which are sluice gates that control the flow of water to and from dikes and prevent salt water from entering. It’s like a dam system. So, we used the money to repair these sluice gates and even construct new ones. If these sluice gates break, the salt water from the river floods the fields making them uncultivable because the soil becomes too saline even for rice cultivation,” he notes.
For the next season in 2019-20, the St Estevam community doubled the area under cultivation to 10 lakh square metres. Unfortunately, there was heavy flooding that season and the village was waterlogged for about 20 days. All the rice rotted, and they lost about Rs 28-30 lakh last season. Till now, they haven’t been compensated by the government.
This year, as a result of COVID-19, a lot of male residents who work on ships abroad, came back because there was no business on cruise lines. They had taken up 1 lakh square metres this year just on a trial basis, and things seem to be progressing nicely.
“The St Estevam experiment has given the entire agricultural sector in Goa hope that mechanisation, land pooling, community farming and social marketing can work and make Goa’s rice fields a working reality once again,” said former agricultural officer Miguel Braganza to Scroll.in.
However, Nestor’s endeavour isn’t merely limited to St Estevam. He is today consulting with other villages like Santa Cruz and Dongri who want to emulate their model of community farming. Meanwhile, he also picks up paddy from other farmers engaged in Khazan farming and facilitates the sale of 10,000 kg of rice every month. He sells rice only from Khazan lands because it tastes different with river minerals. Every two months he processes 25,000 kg of paddy and takes it to Kudal, Maharashtra, for processing.
“Maybe due to the pandemic, since other industries have shut down, many Goans are going back to farming. But I hope this trend continues. Our main aim wasn’t to grow rice, but to get our fields cultivated so that builders don’t eye them. Rampant construction is resulting in hills being cut and pristine farmland destroyed. With our cities in tatters, builders have now started attacking our interior villages. We want people to get back to farming, and show them that it’s a profitable endeavour. In my own farm, I employ about 7 people and pay them each Rs 15,000 a month in addition to a free litre of milk everyday. This is a project to save our fields and we are using agriculture as a vehicle to do that,” emphasises Nestor.
“My village doesn’t depend on farming financially. This is about protecting our lands from rampant construction. My activism isn’t protesting on the roads, but growing paddy on the fields and taking them back from builders,” he adds.
