Diaspora turns Covid warriors for Indians back home
Prasun Sonwalkar
Filed on May 13, 2021
A health worker brings an oxygen cylinder on a wheelchair at the BKC jumbo field hospital in Mumbai. — AP
Call it long-distance nationalism or an emotional pull of the homeland, diaspora communities from the Indian sub-continent have been leveraging social media for relief efforts during the crisis "back home"
It has now become a familiar way of seeking emergency help, not calling the usual phone numbers for ambulance and medical support — but using social media. ‘A’ tweets details of Covid patient B in New Delhi, who is desperate for oxygen or hospital bed; C retweets it, and, in many cases as help arrives, ‘A’ thanks everyone and deletes the original tweet. The only difference in accessing such help from previous times is that ‘A’ is in Guwahati, ‘C’ is in Manchester and they may not always know ‘B’, or each other. Across continents, online Covid warriors have been trying to make the vital difference between life and death for countless patients at a time when India’s health system has been overwhelmed.