A Covid warrior initiates relief work in Bengaluru

Mohammed Tasleel, President of Rotary Bengaluru Manyata, RID 3190, was conferred the Rotary Bangalore Annual Mclver Award by RC Bangalore, and the Community Service Award by Rotary Bangalore Centennial in recognition of his support for migrant workers and frontline staff since the start of the lockdown in March.

During the first two months, Tasleel worked independently with 2–3 volunteers. As the Shramik train started operating for migrants during May-end, he continued the campaign with the support of 25 non-Rotarian volunteers and a club member.

Tasleel (42) joined Rotary in 2016, inspired by his Rotarian friends, Sanjeev Bijapur and Binay Pandey. “I was actively working with some orphanages in my native place for a long time. Rotary fascinated me as it offers a wide arena in the social service domain,” he says.

Since the start of the lockdown, Tasleel meets his team at 5am every morning at a warehouse where they pack and arrange grocery kits and food packets for distribution to physically-challenged people, daily wagers, migrants, frontline workers, and in labour camps and slums. They also provide masks, sanitisers and water to primary health centres, police stations, fire departments, traffic personnel, orphanage and old-age homes.

Rtn S Jayaraman, coordinating the district’s Covid-19 relief initiative, is all praise for Tasleel’s dedication and support. “Over 10,000 masks, face shields, 5,000 bottles of sanitisers, and 32 tonnes of vegetables and foodgrain kits have been distributed to 16,000 families of physically-challenged people and over 1,000 grocery kits have been distributed by the team in and around ­Bengaluru so far,” he says.

Tasleel has also been assisting doctors at the Victoria Hospital and providing essential commodities to the medical personnel who have been quarantined. Through his efforts over 40,000 meal packets were given to hospitals, Covid patients, migrant labourers and people in containment zones.  Vegetables were supplied to the ISKCON temple and fodder was made available for 40–50 cows every day at the temple’s goshala. He also provided financial support to 200 autorickshaw drivers who have been at home without work due to the lockdown.

Tasleel, with his team, arranged medical ­screening at the labour camps around the city and made arrangements for travelling migrants to stay overnight.

The club, Rotary ­Manyata, recently launched an ‘Oxygen Bank’ to provide oxygen concentrators and cylinder support services to the needy. Vitamin tablets and oxygen kits are being distributed to the underprivileged in the city. Over the past three months, the club has distributed relief material worth ₹39 lakh with support from 50 volunteers.

The writer is member of Rotary Bangalore Southwest, RID 3190