“In a normal situation I would have been on the road, helping my team pack food and other relief material for distribution among the affected population, but I am close to 70 years and can’t move out of the house in the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19,” says Sudha Murthy, Chairperson of the Infosys Foundation which is actively involved in relief work across the country.
Started in 1996 by software giant Infosys, the foundation supports the underprivileged sections of society.
“We have worked actively during 14 national disasters, but COVID is an unprecedented experience the human race is going through. We don’t know how long the virus will run its course,” says Ms. Murthy, sharing the experience of providing succour to the needy at the time of disasters. “We built houses, schools, classrooms and toilets. At the time of Hud Hud cyclone, we built 300 houses for fishermen,” she says, adding: “we built a hostel for children at Haripuram.”
Of the total ₹ 120 crore crore the foundation has committed towards COVID relief activities, it has donated a sum of ₹50 crore to the PM CARES Fund.
The foundation has reached out to over 24 lakh people giving them food kits and cooked meals.
It has distributed dry ration to 2.3 lakh families. Assuming that each family comprises five members, it distributed food to them for 21 days and over 12.41 lakh individuals have been served cooked meal. Besides, 1,000 daily wagers have been paid a month’s salary that cost around ₹ 1 crore.
Equipment and medicines
“Migrant labourers are the worst sufferers during such hard times. They do not have ration card or any other identity to benefit from the government schemes. Our focus is on this section crumbling under the lockdown stress,” she said.
In Andhra Pradesh, the foundation reached out to a vast population of the daily wagers in Mangalagiri and in parts of Visakhapatnam through the Akshay Patra Foundation.
Ms. Murthy, through her foundation, has donated 142 ventilators, 26 multi-para patient monitors, 14,102 litres of sanitiser, 40,200 PPE kits, 2,56,500 gloves, 32,105 N95 masks, 22,45,300 3 ply masks, 10,000 face shields, 190 Viral Transport Media, 50,000 Oseltamivir natflu 75 mg capsules¸ and 1,17,000 sodium hydroxychloroquine tablets, etc.
