This article has been written by Ms. Taniksha Gupta
“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.”
– John Holmes
The COVID pandemic has brought a lot of pain and suffering to our country. The collective suffering also kindled empathy and co-operation as people came together to help each other in these trying times. Various such initiatives were carried out by the Legal Aid Society of Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi (hereinafter the ‘LAS’). These initiatives involved numerous students of our law college who teamed up to assist the distressed victims of the pandemic to the best of their capacities. The LAS is proud to announce that our efforts were indeed fruitful.
A summary of our initiatives is given below:
On 19 April 2020 and 02May 2020, the LAS along with the Central District Legal Services Authority set up help desks, facilitating registration of beneficiaries who wished to avail of the free ration scheme launched by the Delhi Government, by way of e-coupons. This was done so that the scheme could properly reach its beneficiaries. The LAS also connected the seekers to the nearest food distribution centres. Our help desks assisted more than 50 people in availing this scheme.
In cases of emergency, the volunteers also connected those in need with the Hunger Helplines run by the Delhi Government and coordinated with the concerned authorities to take care of food requirements of those entitled to the ration. Through this initiative, we were able to reach out to more than 1,900 families as of 04 June 2020.
Additionally, e-coupons of all 310 families were approved pursuant to our petition before the Hon’ble Delhi High Court with the help of Advocate Tushar Sannu. The Hon’ble High Court was pleased to issue a notice and directed the respondents to file a status report within a week on the said cases.
On 14 June 2020, the LAS initiated an ‘Online Awareness Drive’ for encouraging Plasma Donation in context of the COVID-19 pandemic. A list of potential plasma donors was collated by the LAS. This was done by circulating Google forms amongst those qualified, interested and willing to donate, to collect their contact information. This database helped in connecting the potential plasma donors with the hospitals, doctors or patients looking for plasma. Five such potential donors volunteered through our platform. The campaign is still running.
During the second wave of the COVID pandemic, the LAS volunteers came together to organize a helpline initiative that provided verified leads to COVID patients who needed of medicines, oxygen, hospital beds, etc. The volunteers connected patients and their families to the leads depending on their requirements.
To provide COVID patients with verified leads, the LAS also collected information about ambulances, medicines, oxygen cylinders, etc. through various leads circulating on social media. The LAS volunteers verified each of them personally. This database helped significantly while assisting patients in need of resources who sought help from our COVID helpline.
The Legal Aid Society, Campus Law Centre extends its gratitude to the members of the LAS, the volunteers, and the leaders of different initiatives for working tirelessly and selflessly during such tough times, in the interest of equality and justice.