While the nation fights the pandemic caused due to Corona Virus, the number of positive cases in Bihar has reached from 9 to 11. The nation is under lockdown to reduce the transmission risk and people are adhering to various precautionary measures including social distancing. In the wake of the same, Bihar, East Champaran based social activist Sarvesh Tiwari has come up with a creative and effective way to help people with social distancing by distributing masks among those in need. The distributors use gloves and stick as precautionary measures while giving away the masks to minimize the chances of transmission. Having started his campaign from MusaharToli, Sarvesh Tiwari aims to supply these masks to 20,000 people in need.

                            Bihar – based social activist Sarvesh Tiwari distributing masks

Another highlight of this campaign is that the masks are being distributed are of different colours, which makes it a first of its kind initiative toward this cause in the country. The variety of colours helps ensure that masks aren`t exchanged within the family members, helping to ensure their individual safety from the disease. For women, there are red and pink masks, for men it is blue and black while the children are being given white masks.

One of the beneficiaries of the campaign, a resident of Musahar Toli, Rudal Manjhi said, “Neither we can buy good quality masks owing to the lack of money, nor we can go out to the market to purchase it due to the nationwide lockdown. In such a scenario, many families including mine are benefitting a lot from this initiative by Sarvesh Tiwari.”

The local youth of East Champaran are extending their full support towards the success of this campaign in the cause of fighting COVID-19. Mr. Tiwari along with his young brigade is also educating the masses about the symptoms and precautionary measures related to the disease while adhering to all the standards of safety and sanitation.

“Whenever a pandemic breaks out, the marginalized communities of society become the most vulnerable. The first reason behind this is the lack of awareness among their population and second is the lack of resources to avail precautionary tools and measures. Keeping this in mind, I decided to distribute masks among such sections of society at utmost priority while taking all possible safety measures, before the situation gets out of control. In these times demanding social distancing, this indigenous way of distributing masks using a stick is very easy to put into practice and people are adopting it very enthusiastically,” said Sarvesh Tiwari.

The campaign is not only limited to this initiative alone. The people from other states that are returning to their homes are also being provided a free medical check-up by a specialist so that in case they are found positive they may receive treatment on time. This also helps to prevent the spread of the disease in the villages.

The secretary of Nirbhaya Jyoti Trust run by Nirbhaya`s parents, and a crusader in the journey towards justice for Nirbhaya, Sarvesh Tiwari has been contributing to social cause through his organization “Rise Always Welfare Society” for many years now. Sarvesh Tiwari has also adopted the families of the martyrs who lost their lives in 2016 Uri Attack along with 75 disabled children. The son of former Mukhia of Inarvabhar Panchayat, Shri Anand Kumar Tiwari and presiding Mukhia, Smt Usha Tiwari, Sarvesh Tiwari has been actively involved in the upliftment of socially and financially under-privileged sections of the society. He regularly organizes marriage ceremonies for the daughters and pilgrimage tours for the senior citizens of financially weak families and has installed hundreds of tube-wells to resolve water supply issue in his region.