The pleas are reaching tech-savvy engineers, lawyers, NGO workers, politicians, doctors and even tuk-tuk drivers, who have mobilised online to help the sick, some of them hundreds of miles away. Collectively, they have formed grassroots networks that are stepping in where state and national governments have failed.
It is a role that Srinivas, 38, has played before in times of crisis.
As the president of the Congress party’s youth league, he has provided support after natural disasters, including earthquakes and floods. He has worked to get textbooks to underprivileged children and medicine to people who couldn’t afford it.
Early last year, when the pandemic first struck and India locked down, Srinivas galvanised young volunteers across the country who distributed food for stranded migrants, along with more than 10 million masks. He now heads a team of 1,000 people, including 100 in Delhi, the centre of the current outbreak.
Social media as ‘godsend’: In India, cries for help get results
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Social media as ‘godsend’: In India, cries for help get resultsBy Suhasini Raj, New York Times
Last Updated: May 03, 2021, 11:32 AM IST
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Synopsis
With India’s health care system overwhelmed by India’s unprecedented COVID surge, which is bringing more than 400,000 new cases and thousands of deaths each day, desperate relatives and friends of the infected have resorted to sending SOS messages on social media. And many of those calls are being answered.
Agencies
Rajni Gill woke up with a slight fever in mid-April, the first warning that she had COVID-19. Within a few days, she was breathless and nearly unconscious in a hospital.
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