A massive heat wave has hit India leaving people in many parts of the country distressed. And, worse is the state of the poor and homeless who have no option left but to suffer the wrath of the sun.
In such a condition, where one can’t even think of living without an air conditioner for a day, a district collector from Madhya Pradesh has given up the ACs in his office to help the malnourished children in a local rehab center.
As the mercury rose to 46 degrees in Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh, District Collector Swarochish Somvanshi got the AC of his office removed and shifted it to the rehab center for kids suffering from malnutrition.
The Nutritional Rehabilitation Center (NRC) had around 100 tribal children with burn injuries on their body. Tribal parents brand kids with hot iron rods to cure malnutrition which in turn deteriorates their condition, reports TOI.
Inspired by the thoughtful and selfless initiative by the district collector, people began gathering funds for the children. Around Rs 5 lakh was collected in a matter of three days for the malnourished kids.
“We have initiated a scheme called Sanjeevani in our district to address the problem of malnutrition in our district. There are four NRCs and there are around 100 children admitted there. An important difference between the NRCs of other cities such as Bhopal and Umaria is that here children are not only malnourished, but most of them suffer burns due to the marked by hot iron according to tribal superstitions. Thus, the chances of infection by burns increase as the temperature increases,” Somvanshi said.
“There are no specific funds for AC in the NRC and there was a way to send a proposal, but it would have taken some time. In our local Red Cross society we only had Rs 13,000. And it was also not appropriate to ask any suborder to change its AC when it was sitting in an AC camera. So we changed the ACs of my camera and the meeting room. There was an air conditioner in my chamber and three in the meeting room,” he added.
“We did this two days ago, however, after the CA was changed, many people donated funds from the Red Cross Fund and in three days we were able to collect Rs 5 lakh in the fund. We have already made plans for the complete renovation of the NRC,” he said.
Such people, who give up on their own comfort to help the ones in need are rare. They, certainly, restore our faith in humanity. Our country needs more such officers, who genuinely contribute to the betterment of society.
Respect!