By Fr. Tom Mangattuthazhe & Verghese V Joseph –
Despite the second wave of Covid-19 showing no signs of abating in North-East India, there are also umpteen stories of courage propelled by the Christian faith. What makes these services truly inspirational is that they are all driven by faith. They render service and help even amid their suffering and life at risk.
It came as a shock when it was found that Kalain Tea Garden, Kalaincheera Tea Garden and Craigpark Garden under Kalain block in the Barak Valley were affected with 80 positive cases. The Government of Assam immediately requested Seva Kendra Silchar (SKS), one of the social service wings of the Catholic diocese of Aizwal, to open Covid-19 care centre in Kalain Block for the tea garden labourers.
The humanitarian support to the Covid-19 patients and their families at these three Covid-19 care places by SKS is a prime example of what Christians and Christian NGOs can do at this time of crisis.
Till mid-May, many people at Kalain Block were not conscious about the second wave of Covid-19. Furthermore, they neither knew nor understood the Covid SOPs like social distancing, wearing masks as the community thought that they have already overcome the Covid-19crisis. To make matters worse, they were not even aware of the symptoms of the second wave and were even scared to go to hospitals for treatment, as they feared hospitalisation hurdles and expenses. They continued working in the tea gardens until the 17th of May when the first Covid-19 test for the second wave was carried out. Altogether sixteen positive cases were detected out of 44 tests. The district administration was shocked to see such a high number of positive cases and ordered all the tea gardens to be screened in the area so that the community transmission could be arrested.
Workers at Kalain Tea garden, Kalaincheera Tea garden and Craigpark garden were screened and it witnessed 80 positive cases. The garden management found it difficult to manage the situation. The Bagan panchayats (tea garden structure) along with few volunteers sought help from some volunteer organisations to help in setting up a Covid care centre, and they approached Most Rev. Stephen Rotluanga CSC, the Bishop of Aizawl, requesting the services of Seva Kendra Silchar (SKS), one of the social service wings of the Catholic diocese of Aizwal. Bishop Stephen states, “To reduce the alarming spread of Covid-19 and the rising number of positive cases in Assam, the Government of Assam has requested Seva Kendra Silchar to open Covid care centre in Kalain Block for the tea garden labourers”.
Currently, the tea garden management along with the volunteers and SKS are managing the Covid care centres at three places. Fr. Joachim, the episcopal vicar of Barrack valley and Fr. Santiago the director of SKS are leading the Covid care services assisted by Sr. Sherly Thomas who belongs to the congregation St. Joseph of Lyon.
Resources for the setting up of Covid care centres were pooled from the Catholic institutions such as Holy Cross School Silchar, St. Joseph School Badarpur, St. Mary’s School Hailakandi, Auxilium sisters, St. Joseph of Lyon convent and Religious of Jesus and Mary.
In the words of Fr. Santiago, “These centres were opened on 20th May. We have been distributing food for the patients and tea garden labourers. Medicines are handed over by the government and we give food. We have 15 volunteers helping them round the clock, besides there are three religious sisters who are working as counsellors who are meeting the patients every day”.
According to Sr. Shirley, most of the tea garden workers live in close settlements. Often two families are accommodated in one quarter with two rooms. Many of the quarters do not have separate toilet facilities; hence, the possibility of community transmission is high. As the daily wage of the workers is just Rs.145, most of the families do suffer from malnutrition. The tea garden provides only six days of work for the permanent workers and three days for the casual labourers.”
SKS, in collaboration with the government departments, is reaching out to these people with limited resources. The people are continuously trained to be aware about the symptoms of the second wave and are encouraged to visit hospitals and to take Covid vaccine.
Association for Social and Human Advancement (ASHA) is a registered social service society existing since 2000. It has served the North-East and in particular Tripura for the last 20 years. Fr. Paul Pudussery the present director of ASHA says, “Taking into consideration the current Covid-19 situation and the need for a quality mask, we at ASHA engaged our boys and girls in making the two-layer masks and freely distributed about 40,000 masks to police and other frontline warriors. Over 2,500 needy families were given dry food rations. Sanitizers and soaps too were distributed. Two blood donation camps were organized and 82 people donated blood. We accommodated stranded cyclists and trained four boys to appear for Tripura Civil Service exams and 20 aspirants for the sub-inspector post.”
‘Navjan’ is the socio-development initiative of the Claretians of North East India. “Navjan” means ‘New People’, (the prefix ‘Nav’ means ‘new’ and ‘Jan’ means ‘people’) a notion drawn from the biblical concept of the Israelites’ slavery in Egypt and Yahweh’s intervention and selection of Moses for their liberation, thus forming a New Liberated People. Navjan in collaboration with Borjar Christian Forum (BCF) has been reaching out to the people of Guwahati with dry ration and cooked food.
The second wave beginning in March 2021 is much fatal than the first in the year 2020, with shortages of medicines, vaccines, hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and other medicines in parts of the country. The Assam Government has declared a partial lockdown to curb the situation from May 2021. Although the Government of Assam is doing a commendable job there is much more to be done to rescue lives and prevent the spread of Covid-19. There is a felt need of more handholding support to tea people in the tea garden, those patients who are under Covid-19 care Centres as well as those in home quarantines. Their challenges are many such as; basic needs like food, safe drinking water, medication and counselling services.
The example SKS, ASHA and NavJan are some of the many bold initiatives of Covid care, reflecting the love of God manifested and taught in the life and teachings of Jesus.
To live and communicate the love of Jesus in action is a challenge; this is exactly what Jesus meant, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Mathew 5.16).