How a COVID-hit hill panchayat in Kerala arrange a group defend to handle its folks

Express News Service
PANATHADY (KASARGOD): A few tin sheets and one asbestos sheet tied to arecanut logs make up the bus ready shed reverse the Poodamkalladukkam Scheduled Tribe Colony on the Kanhangad-Chemberi state freeway in Panathady panchayat.

The sheets barely hold the heavy noon rain pounding the hill panchayat out. Two items of a damaged concrete electrical put up are used as benches inside.

Two younger males — Pavi Shankar (26), a civil engineer, and Akhil S Nair (19), who’s getting ready for engineering entrance exams — have been sitting within the shed for the previous 4 hours. By midday, they’d emptied a packet of Marie biscuit and a bottle of water. “Our shift started at 8 am and we have one more hour to go,” mentioned Shankar.

For the previous eight days, the youths have been maintaining an in depth watch on the colony, a covid containment zone with 35 homes and 58 energetic circumstances. Shankar and Nair have to make sure nobody from exterior enters the colony or anybody from inside leaves the place. “But we also have to deliver whatever the residents ask for — be it medicine or food,” mentioned Nair.

Around 200 metres away is the honest value store of Panathady. Two Kudumbashree employees — Yamuna Joshy (46) and Rajani Ratnakaran (34) — are standing guard there. They are making certain there is no such thing as a crowding in entrance of the store.

When there is no such thing as a rush, go to homes of covid constructive sufferers to investigate about them and ship medicines. Sometimes, they shell out cash from their pocket to get medicines from the Taluk Hospital at Poodamkallu, 10 km away.

Rapid Response Team

Yamuna, Rajani, Nair, and Shankar are a part of a community of 135 volunteers known as the Rapid Response Team. “They are shouldering a major share of our responsibility to control COVID in our panchayat,” Jose Abraham, the panchayat’s assistant secretary.

Panathady — bordering Karnataka — is the grip of covid, with not less than three colonies of Scheduled Tribes, declared as containment zones. It has 329 energetic circumstances of covid, and since January, round 1,000 individuals have examined constructive for the virus. “This week, we saw three deaths,” he mentioned.

But there’s little panic in Panathady. The panchayat members, who fought a bitter election in November 2020, have come collectively to run a well-oiled outreach machine — from successfully deploying volunteers to working a domiciliary care centre (DCC) for asymptomatic sufferers and group kitchen, and delivering meals and medicines at house.

“We have selected five to eight volunteers from each ward, most of them are graduates,” mentioned Sajini Mol B, CPM’s panchayat member. Twenty-three volunteers are posted at eight banks, 5 ration outlets, on the three containment zones, and Chemberi examine put up bordering Karnataka, she mentioned. 

Community kitchen and care centre

COVID circumstances began rising within the panchayat within the first week of May when seven tribes individuals examined constructive for covid at Kappithottam colony in Ariprode ward. “By the second week, there were 35 cases in the colony,” mentioned James KJ, Congress member of Ariprode ward.

As per authorities pointers, an space with greater than 30 circumstances must be declared a containment zone.James moved all of the constructive individuals to a couple homes and their kinfolk to homes freed from covid in the identical colony. “This helped us keep the residents in the colony itself and yet control the spread of the virus,” he mentioned.

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But the circumstances began rising in the remainder of Panathady. On May 12, the panchayat began a domiciliary care centre (DCC) on the Government Higher Secondary School at Balanthode. The meals for the asymptomatic sufferers was delivered from the People’s Restaurant in Panathur, 8km away.

People’s Restaurant is a people-government initiative to make sure nobody goes hungry within the state. Those who can’t afford are given meals freed from value and others can get meals at Rs 20. The state now has 1,017 People’s Restaurants.

“But patients complained about the quality and the quantity of food,” mentioned panchayat assistant secretary Abraham, who can also be the nodal officer of the DCC. So the panchayat president Prasanna Prasad of the CPM proposed to begin a group kitchen within the faculty.

“As per government direction, we don’t have to set up a community kitchen if there is a People’s Restaurant nearby. But the panchayat members thought otherwise,” mentioned Abraham.

The panchayat members opened the group kitchen on May 15 and determined to serve meals 4 occasions a day to the 70-odd inmates of the domiciliary care centre. They additionally determined every of the 15 wards will take turns to run the kitchen day by day.

People from throughout the panchayat began sending all the pieces wanted to run the kitchen — rice, pulses, masala, tuber crops, onions and greens, and fruits — by means of the volunteers. The pyramid of yams and cassava within the larder is nearly touching the ceiling. “We have enough provisions to run the kitchen for one month,” mentioned KK Venugopal, BJP panchayat member and chairman of the meals committee.

On the primary three days, the group kitchen served vegetarian meals. On the fourth day, Chamundikkunu ward member Preethi KS of the BJP donated rooster for inmates. Since then, all of the members began together with meat and fish on the menu.

On Thursday, James’s ward Ariprode gave rooster biryani for lunch.  Every day, the kitchen makes meals value round Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000. “So till now, we might have served food worth Rs 2.25 lakh. But it is all from the people,” mentioned Venugopal.

Apart from these within the domiciliary centre, meals can also be delivered to these staying alone or usually are not able to cook dinner for themselves.

The panchayat mentioned the government-sanctioned Rs 10 lakh to run the kitchen however that cash is essentially untouched. “We have used Rs 2 lakh to buy PPE kits, gloves, mattresses, beds, and sanitiser packs, and pay the fuel bills,” mentioned Sudeep S, the panchayat head clerk and answerable for the assistance desk.

The academics of the Balanthode colleges donated Rs 25,000; Mary, a farmer, donated Rs 10,000. When Kerala Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation or Milma restricted milk procurement to 60 per cent due to the low demand through the lockdown, the panchayat members purchased the surplus milk and gave it to the colonies in containment zones.

Prameela, a dairy farmer, had 35 litres of surplus milk day by day. “We distributed one litre of milk, along with bread and one dozen of eggs to houses in the containment zone of Kapithottam,” mentioned James. CM Nazir, who runs a grocery store within the panchayat, mentioned a well-wisher gave him Rs 5,000 to pay for the objects purchased by colony residents in quarantine. “That money got over on Friday,” he mentioned.

Promoters of the Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Departments mentioned they’ve delivered round 250 meals kits to households within the panchayat. “But several other clubs and organisations are also pitching in,” mentioned ST promoter Rathesh KB.

N Vincent, a member of Cherupanathady ward, mentioned migrant employees and people within the colonies had to surrender work and keep indoors to get the covid numbers down. “So we will continue to support them till this is over. We are hoping the graph will flatten out in 45 days,” he mentioned.

But James mentioned even when it went on for 60 days, the panchayat may maintain the group kitchen. “We are all farmers after all,” he mentioned.