MUMBAI: For daily wage workers unemployed due to the lockdown in the city, buying toiletries as a precaution against coronavirus is a luxury. Starting Saturday, a trust began distributed free soaps, hand wash and masks to over a 1000 people in the city.
Pehchaan Live Foundation, which also runs the Pehchaan Street School initiative, has volunteers who provide free elementary education to children living in slums and from homeless families at a makeshift street school under a flyover in Ghansoli. The NGO also has centres in Bihar and Delhi.
“One of our volunteers works with a pharmacy company called Charak Pharma that has provided us these toiletries free of cost as part of their CSR initiative,” said Afsana Parveen, founder president of the organization.
In this situation, for the poor, the priority is putting food on the table. "Buying these items is tough. They think that instead of spending Rs 50 on a hand wash, they can buy rice,” says Parveen.
“It is important for them to be safe, because if the virus enters such crowded settlements where they live, things can get out of control,” she said. The foundation is also conducting awareness drives in such areas about the importance of hygiene in these times and the correct way to wash hands. People are taking their advice seriously, Parveen says, as whether rich or poor, everyone is scared.
The foundation has distributed toiletries to auto drivers and security guards at housing societies. From Ghansoli, toiletries have gone till Panvel - such as in in Kopar Khairane near Balaji theatre and in Vashi at the truck stand.
