Tireless awareness campaign and a film help contain Covid-19 in Darjeeling hills

Barely 30 km away from Siliguri, the biggest town in the planes of Darjeeling district where a spike in Covid-19 cases led to partial lockdown from Thursday, people at Tindharia, a cluster of hamlets in the hills, have set an example.

A group of volunteers from the hamlets have succeeded in creating awareness against social stigma faced by patients and common misconceptions about coronavirus.

While the number of Covid-19 cases in Darjeeling district stood at 736 till Thursday and the death toll reached 33 in Siliguri, only one case was reported at Tindharia.

The door-to-door campaign started two months ago. The volunteers, who gathered under the banner, Surveillance Team Tindharia, created not only social awareness but also made a 40-minute film on the subject.

Made in Nepali language, Aafnopan tells people that patients as well as members of their families need mental support and should take precautionary measures.

Since the volunteers wrote the script, played their parts and even did the editing, the project had cost virtually nothing.

Santosh Lama, one of the volunteers, said, “Initially it was difficult convincing villagers, many of whom are ignorant about the virus, that stigmatizing patients and their families is the wrong approach. They need love and care.”

“After the Covid-19 pandemic started, many migrant workers who returned home were forced to stay in the forests. But those who are returning now stay in home quarantine,” said Benoy Chettri, another volunteer.

“The campaign worked. The villagers started taking food to people living in quarantine. They also started participating in our street-corner meetings,” said Karma Moktan, coordinator of the team.

This inspired the team to make Aafnopan. The project was completed in a week.

“Aafnopan is a success story. It shows how social collaboration, discipline and awareness can fight ignorance and Covid-19,” said Animesh Bose, joint coordinator of the Siliguri Fight Corona Committee, a body formed by volunteers in Siliguri.

In the hills, many surveillance committees have been working tirelessly to ensure that those coming from outside are put in mandatory quarantine but the picture has been quite different in Siliguri.

“Eastern ABC Chamber of Commerce and Industries, an organisation of 19 big and small business organizations, has demanded a blanket lockdown in greater Siliguri, which includes the town and some parts of adjoining Jalpaiguri district. Nothing else can contain the pandemic, “said Surajit Paul, convenor of the chamber.

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