Jr docs share excess food, water with slum dwellers near Swasthya Bhavan protest site
Times of India | 13 September 2024
Kolkata: Extra food, water and beverages have found their way from the Swasthya Bhavan protest site to slums and pavement dwellers. On Thursday, protesting junior doctors were found distributing the excess food to residents of nearby slums at Polenite, Sector V and Mahisbathan.
“We had raised an appeal for some water on Day 1 of the sit-in demonstration outside Swasthya Bhavan.Within the next few hours, we started receiving food packets — perishable and non-perishable — along with crates of water bottles and soon, they were much more than we could consume. Hence, we made an appeal to the public to not send any more food and water and the ones we had in excess were distributed among those in need,” said a junior doctor at the protest site.
Students of Jadavpur University’s Salt Lake campus, who had been cooking and supplying lunch and dinner to the protesters, said they too distributed the excess food to slums and pavement dwellers at Nimtala. “We didn’t want to waste any food. Hence, we took the excess food on a mini truck and went to Nimtala and distributed them among poor people,” said a JU student who is also actively taking part in the protest.
Even on Thursday night, the JU canteen prepared rice and chicken curry for 700 protesters and said their canteen would be open all night to serve more people if needed.
To ensure food doesn’t go waste, a temporary food counter was made where perishable and non-perishable food were segregated and protesters were asked to queue up at the counter during lunch and dinner, apart from picking non-perishable items at their will from the other side of the counter.
By Thursday morning, doctors at the protest site started posting on Facebook and ‘X’: “We have more than enough food and water stocked up, which should last for about 4-5 days. Please do not send any more food or water. What we need now are a few large or medium-sized stand fans, generators for emergencies like power cuts and several tarpaulins. However, the most urgent and necessary thing is the presence of a large number of people like you.” Within hours of the post being made, people started pouring in with fans, generators and other items.
A doctor couple from Barasat reached the venue with hand fans while another person from Behala reached the venue with multiple cartons of wet tissues. There were many others who reached the venue with cakes, chocolates, ORS and even sweets.
“This is our fight as well. I don’t want to comment on whether the doctors did the right thing by not engaging in a dialogue with the CM over the live-streaming issue. But one thing I want to say, I want justice for the young doctor who was raped and murdered,” said Sayantani Banerjee, who joined the protest after office.