Unsunug Heroes: Food for poor, beds for clinics

The Unsung Heroes series tells the stories of Bengaluru’s bravehearts, the men and women who worked tirelessly often against great odds, unmindful of the limelight. When the pandemic hit last March, it was every man for himself in the panic-stricken rush that ensued. This was when Dhruv Jatti and his friends formed the Bangalore Student Community. They supplied food to migrant workers, bought groceries for poorer families and even supplied mattresses to Covid clinics. Y. Maheswara Reddy reports

As the early sets of restrictions were put in place last March, thousands of migrant workers travelled over 20 walking through the night, to reach Palace Grounds. Anxious to hurry back home and be with their families, they gathered at Palace Grounds where authorities awaited to verify their documents. Despite their long journeys, nobody remembered to provide breakfast to the famished masses, many of whom came with their children in tow. Into this melee came a group of students, risking their own lives as they did so, carrying breakfast for the hungry people around them.

The Bangalore Student Community (BSC), led by Dhruv Jatti, a student of the Jindal School of International Affairs, managed to crowd source Rs 40,000 to provide breakfast to the thousands of migrant workers who gathered at Palace Grounds. “My friends and I learned about migrant workers struggling in the city and that authorities had not made proper food arrangements. We decided to supply breakfast and drinking water. We managed to raise around Rs 40,000 from our friends and family for this,” says Jatti, an alumnus of the Jindal School of International Affairs.

Jatti was joined by three schoolmates – Dev Bhagat, Rishab Bafna, and Devaank Ratadia. “We continued supplying breakfast, water bottles and biscuits to migrant workers for a week at Palace Grounds and also at Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna City Railway Station,” Jatti recalls. When they visited KSR Station, they found that many of these people were struggling to buy train tickets for their children. “We helped around 500 children get train tickets. We have provided breakfast, biscuits and water bottles for around 85,000 migrant workers,’’ said Dhruv Jatti.

While the government and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) authorities were in a dilemma over whether to procure beds due to the alleged bed scam at the Bangalore International Exhibition Center, Jatti and his friends stepped in, procuring 535 mattresses for the benefit of Covid patients.

“We bargained and bought the mattresses for lower rates. The actual price was Rs 800 but the seller agreed to supply each of the mattresses for Rs 710. The authorities managing the Covid Care Centre at GKVK were very happy with our donation,” he said, adding their parents were very supportive. “They encouraged us to carry on with our welfare work,” he says.

The BSC volunteers had also managed to provide groceries to 1,102 families by joining hands with the Sustainable Development Goals Coordination Center (SDGCC) for technical assistance. “The tie-up helped us identify genuine beneficiaries - the people who lost jobs and couldn’t make ends meet,” he said.

Each grocery packet comprised five kilograms of rice, one kilogram of dal, one liter of edible oil, two kilograms of onions, two kilograms of tomatoes, chili powder, turmeric powder, and salt.

Later, the BSC volunteers even extended their activities to Karnataka-Maharashtra border areas that were affected by floods. They visited two flood-hit villages Takkalki and Takkod in Jamkhandi taluk, Bagalkot, in north Karnataka. They helped around 400 families in flood-affected villages. There, in association with a private hospital, they also made arrangements to vaccinate around 2,000 people.

“Many people were hesitant to take the vaccines but we created awareness among the villagers on the importance of doing so,” he said.