Saathi haath badhana
Last month, a contributing editor of Samvada got a call from a Good Samaritan requesting help for an elderly citizen. Mrs. Mazumdar, who stays at B-183, was quite irked with fellow residents dumping trash and garbage outside her house. Additionally, some people employed by the Noida Authority turned up to clean the drains and insulted the elderly lady when she asked them to ensure the area was cleaned when they left for the day. Mazumdar has alleged that the workers spoke rudely to her, verbally abused her, and told her to go inside her house, daring her to take action against them.
Mazumdar, who is 75+, stays alone after the demise of her husband, who had retired as a wing commander from the Indian Air Force. She lamented the lack of support from neighbours and even RWCS representatives, even though she is an RWCS member.
She spoke of only one person willing to help her who had contacted the Samvada contributor for help. The editor, in turn, called Renu Sharma (wife of RWCS President Govind Sharma), who was shocked to hear this and promised to look into it. She spoke to Mazumdar, and some RWCS office staff and guards visited the house to assess the situation. Priti Ganguli (RWCS B-Block representative) called Mazumdar to assure her of action. Mazumdar was added to the RWCS B-Block WhatsApp group, where she shared pictures of the trash. To give credit where it is due, the debris was removed the next day, much to the relief of the elderly lady, who was very thankful to the RWCS for the prompt action.
When the Samvada team followed up with Mazumdar a month later, she said that things were good. However, she says that the road is not swept regularly, and the swept dirt is collected at a certain point and is removed only every week.
Many years back, Renu Sharma floated the idea of residents volunteering to check up on the elderly who live alone. Maybe we need an initiative like Shantanu Naidu’s Goodfellows.
