— Neeraj BR
After a year of being locked up in our homes, when COVID cases began to drop and vaccination drives commenced across the country, India believed it had reached the end of the tunnel at the start of 2021. People gathered in large numbers without masks and social distance for the elections, and other religious gatherings in March and April 2021. However, hardly anyone thought India was to witness a situation similar to, if not more gruesome, than what had happened in Italy and the US the previous year.
The second wave of COVID-19 in India during April-May 2021 showed the country just how deadly the virus could be and more importantly, the weakness of our public health system. Hospitals were flooded with patients, having to turn several away. Patients had to share scarce hospital beds during the second wave, risking the spread of infection among themselves and others
Perhaps the most critical failure of the system was the inability to supply the one thing we all took for granted – oxygen. Pictures of people waiting in long queues to refill oxygen cylinders for their loved ones; desperate appeals for leads and help to find oxygen and medical drugs on social media platforms; the frantic search for oxygen cylinders and concentrators; and the endlessly burning funeral pyres are images that are etched in our minds.
How did India run out of oxygen?
For medical and industrial purposes, the production of liquid oxygen is carried out in oxygen plants set across the country that are connected to hospitals and industries. Out of the 7127 MT of oxygen produced in India at the time of the second wave, about 4600 MT goes to the medical industry and the rest for industries. Moreover, the plants are not evenly distributed across the country, and some are located hundreds of kilometres away from each other. The central and north-western parts of India—Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh— do not have an oxygen plant in kilometres. So, transportation is the weakest link in the oxygen industry in India.
Liquid oxygen is flammable and cannot be flown in most cases. Therefore, they can be moved only by road, rail or sea. Most oxygen suppliers do not deliver oxygen on an inter-state basis and those who do, charge extra payment. However, long-distance transportation of oxygen may compromise its quality, leaving hospitals vulnerable to an oxygen shortage at all times.
Around April 2021, India started registering a steep rise in COVID cases. With the increase in active cases, the oxygen demand also increased sharply. The medical infrastructure reached its breaking point as hospitals started running out of essential medical equipment like beds, oxygen, and drugs. During the second wave, India did not have enough oxygen tankers, and the oxygen tanker drivers got infected with COVID – forcing the authorities to seek out replacement drivers which was time-consuming.
On May 14, 2021, COVID-19 infections in India crossed 24 million, and India reported nearly 3,00,000 cases on a near-daily basis, the highest rates anywhere in the world. Around the same time, the black market for oxygen cylinders and concentrators increased substantially, and so did the prices (almost by 1000%). Oxygen-related deaths were reported in various parts of the country, and oxygen cylinders were looted from hospitals, like the Damoh hospital in Madhya Pradesh.
Amidst such frightening times, as all structures and protocols crumbled, it was the interventions of various civil society organizations that kept India afloat.
Oxygen Langar: A helping hand in Trying times
One of the widely reported initiatives of supplying oxygen was the ‘Oxygen Langar‘ in Noida, held by Khalsa Help International in collaboration with the district administration of Noida and the management of the Gurudwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha. They set up the facility in the multilevel parking behind the Botanical Garden Metro Station in Gautam Buddha Nagar district.
The facility started with 12 large cylinders and 14 oxygen concentrators, and catered to patients with oxygen levels below 80. It assisted the needy with oxygen till their relatives arranged oxygen cylinders or a hospital bed. The KHI reached out to oxygen plants as far as Haridwar, Jaipur and Ludhiana, and vehicles arranged by the NGO moved around the clock to ensure timely refilling. The langar started on May 6 and helped revive 15000 patients in the 22 days it worked before shifting to Ghaziabad. The KHI also set up another oxygen langar in Kashipur, Uttar Pradesh.
The idea of an ‘oxygen langar’- providing oxygen for free to everyone who need them for free, like a langar-was quickly taken up by gurudwaras in other cities like Lucknow, Vijayawada, Kolkata and New Delhi, contributing to ameliorating the oxygen crisis.
Oxygen Supply by NGOs
NGOs not only distributed oxygen, but were also in the forefront of procuring them. Khalsa Aid, run by UK-based Indian, Ravi Singh, tapped into the strong international networks it had developed over the years from its previous humanitarian initiatives for the Yazidis, Rohingyas, and the tsunami-hit Indonesia, to collect aid for India. With the contribution of its donors, Khalsa Aid dispatched hundreds of oxygen concentrators to New Delhi through two charity flights by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Hemkunt Foundation, based in Gurugram, worked with 150 volunteers to procure and distribute oxygen cylinders. The Foundation started its COVID-19 relief work by setting up a makeshift camp in Gurugram and providing oxygen through cars. As more critical patients arrived at the camp, sitting arrangements were made. However, their most significant initiative was the setting up of a 700-bed makeshift facility, created out of the growing need for COVID-related medical assistance and the inability of the existing medical infrastructure to cater to this sudden spike. The facility came with an around-the-clock ambulance, food, and other services.
The well-intentioned efforts of the Hemkunt Foundation occasionally bumped into roadblocks. The founder, Irinder Singh Ahluwalia, said that the police seized the vehicles of the Foundation carrying oxygen cylinders. Moreover, the Foundation had difficulty convincing the various state governments to help other states by supplying them with oxygen. The Hemkunt Foundation procured oxygen from every possible source at whatever prices they were available. They eventually had enough oxygen that they directly helped hospitals out. The Foundation also launched a ‘drive-through’ initiative to provide oxygen to patients inside their cars.
Mitigating Hunger during Second Wave
In the vast commotion around oxygen, the need for food by various groups was side-lined. However, organisations worked to mitigate the hunger crisis associated with the second wave.Rise Against Hunger India, a Bengaluru-based NGO had to attend distress calls from around the country requesting food assistance. The NGO made full use of the office-cum warehouses in Bengaluru and its regional chapters in Mumbai and New Delhi, and its over-250 partner organizations spread across the country, for grassroots-level assistance and delivery of food for every person in need. Partners, chosen with diligence, helped deliver food to the affected communities or individuals upon receiving a distress call.
The NGO primarily focused on food relief and provided food assistance to hospital staff, relatives of patients, and workers at burial grounds during the second wave. The NGO launched a unique program named SAATHI to provide food aid to crematorium workers, who do not have any social security and had to work for long hours for little wages, and their families as an acknowledgment of their efforts.
The administration supported the good intentions of the NGO, with local administration officials facilitating the movement of the NGO’s and its partner organizations’ vehicles. Police officials gladly distributed food packets to those present in hospitals.
The well-intentioned activities of the NGO took a hit due to the restrictions for physical activity during the lockdowns. During the pre-COVID days, around 12000-15000 volunteers, including those from the corporate sector, took part in the NGO’s activities yearly. During the pandemic, especially during the second wave, the NGO could not find enough volunteers for its standard meal packing activities, and all events involving corporate sponsors had to be cancelled.
Though the number of volunteers decreased, the call for food assistance did not. Therefore, the NGO devised COVID-appropriate safety protocols and invited volunteers for standard dry food packaging. However, the turnout was minimal, and workers were hired to help speed up the packaging process.
Moving food packets within and between states curtailed the reach of the volunteers, and even volunteers who were active during the first wave had to venture out cautiously during the second wave. Moreover, some of the volunteers contracted COVID and also faced personal losses. Luckily, the activities moved at full speed with assistance from field partners.
Learning from the First Wave of COVID-19 in India, the NGO procured supplies and ingredients in bulk to keep a buffer stock for the second wave. It also contacted local vendors across the country to provide dry ration kits locally, allowing for local logistics management to rule out the need to travel far.
The efforts of the NGO has reached 292,987 people in 73 Districts across 17 States through 2.9 million food packets delivered by 93 field partners during the second wave.
With the impending third wave, Rise Against Hunger India has upped its game. The supply system, inventory management and logistics are better prepared for immediate scaling up. The partner databases of the NGO has been updated on a real-time basis to quickly connect with them in case of a surge in COVID cases.
The NGO also launched a pan-India social media campaign called #ShieldUp to support the government’s efforts of promoting vaccination and COVID-appropriate behaviour by facilitating access to vaccine centres; connecting health officials to inaccessible areas; organising special awareness; and myth-debunking sessions regarding the vaccines. The NGO has received numerous requests for collaboration from over 250 grassroots level organisations.
IITM Helps: A helping hand, closer to home
During the second wave, insti started receiving numerous requests for leads and help, both medical and financial, on the students email groups. Seeing the flood of requests, the Student Executive Council decided to start initiatives that would help deal with the torrent of requests in an organized manner – this went on to become IITM Helps.
At the core of the functioning of ‘IITM Helps’ was students helping fellow students during the second wave. It was in line with the Student General Secretary’s electoral promise of creating a platform for fundraising within IITM. This promise was expanded into a full-fledged portal where people could upload their medical and financial aid requests and a volunteer network to address them.
At the top of the organisational structure of IITM Helps are the Student General Secretary, the Hostel Affairs Secretary, and a Ph.D. scholar who knew the workings of a similar initiative by the alumni of BITS Pilani.
The organization comprises Regional Heads, Admins, Volunteers and a Data Team. For the operations of IITM Helps, the country was divided into three regions: North, Central and South, with regional heads and volunteers for each of the three regions. The Data team consolidates data about available medical resources and hospital beds in each region. At the same time, the admins overlook the functioning of the regional groups, taking updates and brainstorming and strategizing to improve the portal’s efficiency. The IITM Helps portal and its operations were set up and managed by the Web Ops team of IITM with insights from the alumni of BITS Pilani.
A student can upload a request specifying the city, state, and the help they need, both medical and financial, in the portal. The request will then be received by the Regional Heads, who will check the availability of volunteers. Volunteers are required to maintain an availability sheet specifying when they will be available for assistance every day.
The Regional Head will redirect the request for medical aid to the volunteer concerned, who will inform the person in need about what can be done- reaching out to a government official or private agencies or cold-calling medical stores etc. The volunteer will handle the request till it is resolved.
For fundraising requests, the volunteers were assigned to cross-check the background of the request and the amount raised for the request on the portal. The portal had a feature where donors could enter the amount to pay, and they will be redirected to UPI to pay the entered amount.
IITM Helps managed to help about 20+ families and raised about 4-5 lakhs from the student community of IITM without any contributions from the faculty, alumni or external funding or campaigns. This is a high success rate considering the entire initiative was run by students. Plans are being made to expand the scope of IITM Helps to include faculty, alumni, and external donors.
By the time proposals were made to expand IITM Helps, the second wave had died down. So it was decided that the organisation learns from the workings of the past few months to improve the system.
For the third wave, IITM Helps is in talks with the faculty and alumni to make sure that the contacts and supplies are available once the third wave does hit India. As there is no clarity of the materials needed during the third wave, IITM Helps is focusing more on building the network and making it ready for the third wave. Once the third wave hits India, we will be better prepared and have all the mechanisms ready.
The experience of the past one year has shown us two stark realities- the strength of the adversary we are up against and the scarce means with which we have to face it. We must be thankful to the civil society whose selfless deeds helped us stay afloat in these trying times. It is high time we learn our lesson and not let our guard down lest a deadlier third wave ravage the country again.
Design by Lakshmi P
Edited by Madhumita R
Article 19 