After the flood in Malda I called a friend who lives in one of the affected areas.
He told me about the catastrophic situation of his village, Shripur
The whole area was submerged in water and most of the homes were washed away.
Most of the villagers took shelter on the roof of their houses or trees and had no provision of food or water.
The locals were agitated by the carelessness of the administration and the situation is worsening.
I was moved by the situation and immediately contacted other students for raising fund to help them.
Most of them wanted to donate the fund to a NGO or in government’s relief fund but that will take time so I insisted to help them on the field as quickly as possible.
I took the initiative and formed a team to go there and helped them.
I even asked two medical students to come with us for medical help.
We asked the students and alumni to contribute and 266 alumni contributed more than 140000 through paytm and netbanking.
We have organized several flash mobs with the dance club at prime spots and the people donated a significant sum.
I have contacted a local departmental store “more” to provide food items, tents and blankets at a lesser price.
The store owner agreed to provide the old stock at half price.
We inspired other students to help to make 4000 packets of biscuits, parched rice, essential medicines, water bottles and blankets (wrapped in sheets).
We contacted a transport company whose owner is from Malda and requested him to take the relief packages at lesser price.
We arranged trucks to deliver the packages to Malda town.
We contacted with the villagers and some of them had come to our help to transfer the relief to Sripur halt by train.
The village is 10 minutes walk from the station but the whole area was under 3 feet of water.
When we reached some local political leaders came and argued that no relief work could be done without their involvement.
They asked us to donate the packages to the panchayat.
We sensed corruption in relief work and disagreed irrespective of their threatening.
We arranged 2 boats to distribute packets.
In the first day, we delivered almost 2000 packets mostly to the people who have taken shelter in station and schools and rescued some struck in their homes.
In the next two days, we were able to deliver packages to every one of that village.
I observed the severity of the situation and felt the commitment to contribute more to society.
I collaborated with some other students with the same mentality and started going to a nearby slum area.
We have been distributing clothes and blankets and raising awareness of hygiene.
We distributed dustbins to the 26 families of that area and they started using them.
teach children after college.
I inspired my friends and juniors to join.
