NEW DELHI: The lockdown has changed Yogita Bhayana’s life drastically. Her days start at dawn when she drives around Delhi in her personal car, the trunk loaded with cooked meals, dry ration kits and biscuits. Her itinerary is erratic, but the impact of her work has reached thousands of people.
The young woman, a post-graduate in disaster management, has been distributing food and financial aid to people in need, and has even managed to send a few migrants with medical conditions back to their villages.
“When the Prime Minister announced the lockdown, being from a disaster management background and working at the grassroots level for the last 13 years, the first thing that came to my mind was what would happen to the daily wager,” Bhayana says. So, she made a large poster, offering food to labourers in her neighbourhood. They fed a dozen people for a few days, but as the impact of the lockdown became grimmer, she decided it was time to venture out.
She went to bus stands, where labourers were still waiting in the hope of being able to return home, and found Tipu Yadav, a young man from Bihar who had lost his mother in an accident. He wanted to go back for her funeral. Bhayana posted his pleas on social media. It went viral, with many people, including politicians, initially offering to bear the transport expenses. The offers, however, did not fructify. She then took matters in her own hand and met Vipin Kumar, resident commissioner of Bihar, to arrange an emergency interstate pass for Yadav.
“The formalities didn’t take a lot of time. The commissioner heard us out but he did not have a car or a driver to send Tipu to Bihar. So, I offered my personal car,” Bhayana told TOI. Since Yadav’s repatriation, she has ensured at least six others also reached their villages safely. Interstate travel passes were issued for migrants. Most of the time, it was a funeral or an emergency health condition. One of them was Disha, an 11-year-old heart patient, who was sent home to Agra. She was surviving somehow outside AIIMS with her uncle and mother for a month.
So far, Bhayana has reached out to 2,000 people with monthly ration kits and 10,000 people with cooked meals. She also feeds stray dogs. “I think it’s important to step out and reach as many people as we can. Maybe if each one of us reached one hungry person, we would make a big difference,” she says.
Bhayana, who quit her job as an airline cabin attendant in 2007, said her decision to give back to society was finalised the day she witnessed an accident. “I realised that we could either remain in our comfort zones or actually push ourselves to make a difference,” says Bhayana, who, after her degree in disaster management, went on to form an organisation, PARI, or People Against Rape in India, to help rehabilitate rape survivors.
The young woman, a post-graduate in disaster management, has been distributing food and financial aid to people in need, and has even managed to send a few migrants with medical conditions back to their villages.
“When the Prime Minister announced the lockdown, being from a disaster management background and working at the grassroots level for the last 13 years, the first thing that came to my mind was what would happen to the daily wager,” Bhayana says. So, she made a large poster, offering food to labourers in her neighbourhood. They fed a dozen people for a few days, but as the impact of the lockdown became grimmer, she decided it was time to venture out.
She went to bus stands, where labourers were still waiting in the hope of being able to return home, and found Tipu Yadav, a young man from Bihar who had lost his mother in an accident. He wanted to go back for her funeral. Bhayana posted his pleas on social media. It went viral, with many people, including politicians, initially offering to bear the transport expenses. The offers, however, did not fructify. She then took matters in her own hand and met Vipin Kumar, resident commissioner of Bihar, to arrange an emergency interstate pass for Yadav.
“The formalities didn’t take a lot of time. The commissioner heard us out but he did not have a car or a driver to send Tipu to Bihar. So, I offered my personal car,” Bhayana told TOI. Since Yadav’s repatriation, she has ensured at least six others also reached their villages safely. Interstate travel passes were issued for migrants. Most of the time, it was a funeral or an emergency health condition. One of them was Disha, an 11-year-old heart patient, who was sent home to Agra. She was surviving somehow outside AIIMS with her uncle and mother for a month.
So far, Bhayana has reached out to 2,000 people with monthly ration kits and 10,000 people with cooked meals. She also feeds stray dogs. “I think it’s important to step out and reach as many people as we can. Maybe if each one of us reached one hungry person, we would make a big difference,” she says.
Bhayana, who quit her job as an airline cabin attendant in 2007, said her decision to give back to society was finalised the day she witnessed an accident. “I realised that we could either remain in our comfort zones or actually push ourselves to make a difference,” says Bhayana, who, after her degree in disaster management, went on to form an organisation, PARI, or People Against Rape in India, to help rehabilitate rape survivors.
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