By Pervez Bari
Bhopal: During the nationwide lockdown because of Coronavirus (Covid-19) the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, (JIH), Bhopal Unit donning the hat of Good Samaritan has proved beyond doubt that the virtues of humanity, compassion, charity, sympathy and mercy still exist in today’s time when Muslims have become victims of enmity, hatred and ill-will between different religious communities.
In such pandemic situation the entire nation came to a halt leaving lakhs of people distressed and worried situation for daily wagers, migrant workers and low income groups of society. In such alarming circumstances JIH Bhopal Unit started relief work in all the directions where ever it is needed without any discrimination. After the nationwide lockdown announced on 22nd March’2020, the JIH Bhopal unit started community kitchens for food packets distribution covering almost the entire city from 24th March with all the legal permissions from the local government authorities and relief work was started on a war-footing.
This is the first time ever any organisation did relief work at such a large scale covering different areas of work at the same time. Reiterating Shakeel Khan in-charge of Jamaat-e-Islami, Hind Bhopal Unit said: “His organisation is committed to serve the humanity and has proved its strength, coordination and ability to manage and deliver the best possible support to the society”.
Relief Work programmes of JIH, Bhopal
• Setup of Community kitchens; • Distribution of Dry Ration Kits; • Relief work at Habibganj Railway Station; • Relief work in Quarantine Centres; • Relief work at National and State Highways; • Eid Celebration with poor and needy ones; • Free food vehicles & • Creating Business Opportunities.
Setup of Community Kitchens
JIH Bhopal Unit immediately started working after nationwide lockdown declared on 22nd March, 2020. It setup 8 community kitchens operational at different locations of Bhopal to cover the entire city. More than 200 Jamaat volunteers started working for free food packets delivery to the poor and needy once. More than 10000 (Ten thousand) food packets are delivered per day covering each and every corner of Bhopal city. These food packets are being delivered mainly in slum areas and to the needy once without any discrimination of caste, creed, colour and class.
Later on while continuing the food packet distribution, JIH Bhopal Unit started distributing dry ration kits in the month of Ramadan with a complete package. It distributed almost 4270 dry ration kits to needy families.
When Govt. started Shramik Express (Special trains) for migrants, Indian Railways enforced a new rule to report at railway station at least 1:30 hours before boarding the train. In this situation it has been noticed that people who are willing to travel reached at railway stations 8–10 hours before the scheduled departure of the train time and waited outside the railway station as they were not allowed to enter the platform without confirmed tickets. This left the passengers with no choice but to wait outside the railway stations under 40+ degree temperatures. At this time also JIH Bhopal Unit came into action and took the responsibility of one of the Railway station of Bhopal namely Habibganj Railway Station, which is about 7 Kms from the Bhopal main railway station and started providing free food packets and water to the people waiting outside the railway station.
In addition to this JIH Bhopal Units also applied for the permission from DRM Bhopal to allow them doing relief work at railway platforms so that they can provide free food packets and water to the passengers in the trains passing through Habibganj railway station.
Eid Celebration with poor & startling fact comes to fore
When JIH Bhopal volunteers celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr by distributing fruits, biscuits and cold drinks in the slum areas mainly to the needy families of new Arif Nagar a startling fact came to the fore. The poor inhabitants of the area residing beside the railway tracks whose one-room set homes having 3’x3.5’ toilets, narrow doorways, erratically fitted iron-sheet walls etc. clearly announces their BPL (below poverty line) status. However, this is no deterrent as they were moved by the plight of migrant workers travelling in trains towards their homes in UP and Bihar while passing through their locality. They decided to mitigate their sufferings by providing them food packets to satiate their hunger pangs. They collected Rs.5/- from each house hold and started preparing vegetable biryanis, pooris, vegetable curries etc. They packaged these food items to deliver to the passengers, even at sometimes in running trains by throwing the food packets inside through windows. This crowning gesture of these have-nots puts heads down of many of us, who are far better off, to shame and no words are forthcoming to acknowledge their good deeds in these times when by and large people are at their wits’ end.
Relief Work at Quarantine Centre
JIH Bhopal Unit also took responsibility of three Quarantine centres and started providing food, water and other necessary items on daily basis to the centre absolutely free of cost. The Quarantine Centres are: – • Rajeev Gandhi College, • Mahaveer College, Abbas nagar &• Gulshan Garden, Bairagarh.
Relief work at National and State highways
During the lockdown 4.0 migrants from different states and cities started moving towards their home towns. This led to the chaotic situation for the migrants at National and State highways. At this juncture also JIH Bhopal unit came into action and setup stalls on highways providing free food, water, fruits and juices for migrants, free milk and biscuits for their children, sanitary pads for women, and some essential medicines for the needy ones and also provide free shoes and slippers to the migrants passing from Highways. Jamaat volunteers are working 24 x 7 on highways serving the migrants.
Meanwhile, in the coming days JIH Bhopal Unit has decided to run free food vehicles in different parts of city, these vehicles will reach to different areas (Mainly slums) and announcement of free food will be done from these vehicles so that the needy persons can collect the free food packets from the vehicle.
Creating Business Opportunities
As we all are aware that this lockdown period has a big impact on our nation’s economy and people started losing their jobs in different sectors and industries also several small scale businesses are almost on the verge of shutdown leaving a big chunk of professionals and qualified persons jobless, in this hard times JIH, Bhopal Unit is planning to create more than 1000 business opportunities in Bhopal for professionals whose salary range between 10k to 25k per month.
Meanwhile, it may be mentioned here that Jamaat-e-Islami Hind was officially formed in April 1948. JIH specifies its guiding principle as “Iqaamat-e-Deen” (Establishment of the Islamic way in all aspects of life). Its guiding principle is that Islam is a complete way of life. Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has involved itself in various humanitarian and relief efforts across many parts of India.