A catastrophic second wave of COVID-19 has overwhelmed India’s already creaky health infrastructure, with hospitals running out of beds and oxygen, while critical drugs are being sold on a thriving black market.
Social media platforms have been flooded with SOS messages from people pleading for oxygen cylinders and hospital admissions as authorities struggled to cope with the scale of the crisis.
Amid the shortage, many places of worship, including mosques and gurdwaras, across India have come forward to help needy patients and a number of them have been turned into care centres for COVID patients.
Mufti Arif Falahi, head of a seminary in the western city of Baroda, has taken on a different job over the past weeks: saving lives.
(RNS) In the grip of a deadly second wave of COVID-19, religious charities and faith-based organizations are among the many civil society groups that have stepped up to mobilize COVID relief efforts.
Call center for free medical oxygen cyniders lunched by two Sikh youth organisations in Mumbai. (Photo/ ANI)
Sikh youth organisations launch call centre for free oxygen cylinders in Mumbai ANI | Updated: Apr 28, 2021 15:05 IST
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 28 (ANI): Amid the spike in COVID-19 cases and the subsequent shortage of medical oxygen across Maharashtra, two Sikh youth organisations have launched a call center providing free oxygen cylinders to those in need.
Members of the Malabar Hill Sevak Jattha and Mulund Sikh Youth have collaborated with Red Crescent Society to help with the oxygen crisis in Mumbai.
“Last year, we organised langar for three months. But this time we saw that there is a shortage of medical oxygen and people require it. So we connected with the Red Crescent society,” Balvinder Singh, a volunteer in the initiative, told ANI.
Mosques in Mumbai offer free oxygen cylinders
Oxygen cylinders are being provided by several mosques in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, including the city, Mumbra, Mira Road, Kalyan and Bhiwandi.
By Nikita Venkatesh| Published: 20th April 2021 2:02 pm IST Representative Image
Mumbai: Many mosques in Mumbai have stepped forward to offer free oxygen cylinders to COVID-19 patients in order to share the load with hospitals and take some pressure off them.
The supply comes with a kit that can be fitted at home to support COVID patients whose oxygen saturation level is low.
According to a report by the
Times of India, oxygen cylinders are being provided by several mosques in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, including the city, Mumbra, Mira Road, Kalyan and Bhiwandi. The step is initiated by the NGO Red Crescent Society of India
Can India Turn the Rohingya Crisis’ Tide?
New Delhi shares moral as well as legal obligations in making sure it does its share to redress the humanitarian crisis.
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January 26, 2021
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India is not a party to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol since India believes “its borders are porous and any conflict can lead to mass movement of people” straining its limited resources. However, India has traditionally opened its doors to Tibetans and Afghan refugees. Therefore, its response to the Rohingya crisis catches us by surprise.
Al Jazeera has stated that “the Indian government appears intent on following dangerously in the footsteps of the Myanmar authorities: intentionally fomenting religious-nationalist fervor and placing thousands of traumatized Rohingya in a state of constant fear and deprivation.” The 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and a proposed National Register for Citizens (NRC) have compli