Zomawii Hrashel is one of very few bakers in Mizoram who have not closed shop after the lockdown. The output of her Zomawi Bakery in Lunglei town has been scaled down, but the ovens have been churning out cakes and biscuits for inmates of the district jail, de-addiction centres and orphanages in the town and outlying areas.
The Lunglei district police have been helping her deliver the packages. “If the more fortunate among us do not help others during such times, who will?” she said.
Far away at Seppa, in Arunachal Pradesh, Dumsap Dada has waived off a month’s rent for 13 shopkeepers in two shopping complexes she owns. This will set the widow back by ₹90,000 for sustaining her large family. “All the shopkeepers are from outside — from Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh. How can I take rent from people who have not been able to sell anything? But I have told them to pass on the relief to other less privileged, to the best of their capabilities for creating an aid chain,” she told The Hindu.
Ms. Dada also hoped her gesture would help change the mindset of a section of people “who are calling our boys and girls coronavirus” at a time when the “spirit of humanity should reign”.
In the adjoining Sonitpur district of Assam, farmer Ganga Kakati has pledged 20 bighas of his farmland at Gohpur for a hospital to treat COVID-19 or other epidemics. Part of this land had been used for an election rally by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019.
In central Assam’s Puranigudam, businessman Nitul Gayan on Sunday wrote to Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma offering his marriage hall to be used as an isolation centre for those who do not have exclusive spaces at home.
Much before the Tripura government sought donations for a fund to absorb the socio-economic impact of the pandemic, sisters Jui and Munmun Deb had offered 25% of their monthly pay, amounting to ₹5,000 each. Both teach in government schools at Kamalpur in Dhalai district.
“We sought deduction from the current month’s pay due soon. But we transferred the amount as soon as Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb responded to our suggestion and provided a link for payment,” Ms. Jui Deb said.
Bolin Bordoloi, former MLA and son of Assam’s first Chief Minister Gopinath Bardoloi, said the outpouring of help underlined the seriousness of the pandemic although the Northeast has been relatively safe with two out of 39.2 million having tested COVID-19 positive.
“We now have to think of ways of streamlining the process of providing adequate supplies to the people. One way can be using the services of religious organisations and members of namghars (prayer halls) that are found in almost all localities,” he said.
