The Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic has unleashed unfathomable strife and great hardships across the world. Apart from the rising death toll, people have also suffered immensely due to the economic crisis that was precipitated by the necessary lockdown. In India, a nationwide lockdown has been in force since the 25th of March and various groups, migrant workers especially, have suffered gravely due to it. Amidst the grave turn of events, people from various walks of life have come forward to help alleviate the suffering of people in their own personal capacity. One of them is Manish Mundra, the producer of the popular Bollywood movie Masaan.
Even before the lockdown, Manish Mundra has been contributing to charities to help people in distress. In March, before the lockdown, or even the Janata Curfew on the 22nd of March, he had contributed Rs. 10 lakh towards BJP politician Kapil Mishra’s appeal for donations to help the Hindu victims of the anti-Hindu riots in Delhi. Later, a day before the Janata Curfew, Manish Mundra pledged Rs. 3 crores to secure 70 ventilators for the treatment of those affected by the virus.
Since then, the filmmaker has been participating actively in India’s fight against the Wuhan Coronavirus. He has been working to deliver PPE kits in hospitals where they would be necessary for the doctors to combat the virus. He has delivered the PPE kits to hospitals in Nagpur, and in places such as Dehradun, Morena, Yevetmal, Darbhanga and Ahmedabad. He has donated kits to numerous other hospitals other than the places mentioned. He is also serving as a conduit for people who wish to donate but do not have the means to organize the distribution.
#PPE #Nagpur today we delivered 950 PPE kits in key hospitals of Nagpur. To fortify our Heroes. Thanks @IndiaPostOffice @Anubhuti009 @boomzy1231 amazing work. @priyankac19 #IndiaFightsCoronavirus
— Manish Mundra (@ManMundra) April 19, 2020
400 – GMC, Dean Sajal Mitra
350 – IGMC, Dean Ajay Keoliya
200 – #Nagpur Collector https://t.co/zS1IZ5D8hT
Speaking to OpIndia, Mundra said, “My biggest motive is to help my country in these difficult times and specifically the frontline medical and support staff. If we can protect them we can fight longer. That’s the key to win this Coronavirus fight. If the doctors and nurses fall we fall.” And while he did face initial hurdles in logistics owing to the nationwide lockdown, things soon fell into place. “As they say god helps if we are in pursuit of good things Twitter got me an amazing person in Anubhuti she is professional with an expertise in logistics across India. She came from nowhere and became part of our team and since then we have had no problem in despatches,” he said.
Over and above this, Mundra and his team has also been serving cooked food packages. Food worth Rs 3-4 lakh is being supplied daily.
In addition to this, Manish Mundra has also been helping those who are donating ration kits to those hurt by the lockdown. People have expressed profound gratitude to him for helping them help other people. There are others who have initiated their own efforts to combat the virus taking inspiration from him. He has made contributions to those who are working to provide the affected with food during the ongoing crisis.
@ManMundra sir inspired by you sir we have started producing PPE kits
— அஜன் பலராமன் (@AJANBALARAMAN) April 17, 2020
Intially production of 50 kits to 2000 kits flat 2 days
Made our firsh shippment today in just above 24hrs to military hospital Gaya pic.twitter.com/uKnXkkWNE6
Simultaneously, Manish Mundra has also been urging others from the Bollywood industry and sports industry to contribute to the country’s fight against the pandemic and has been working to organize a concerted response to the crisis. He emphasized that there was a need to distribute as many PPEs as possible in states most affected and informed them that should they use the Indian Postal Network, the equipment would reach them in five to seven days. He said that he could help them locate suppliers and they could make the payment directly.
In the states of MHA / MP / UP / RAJ. Talk and enquire about how can you contribute. One #PPE set costs around 750 delivered. If you do 1000 it will cost 750,000 max and we need more than 20,000 plus kits everyday. We can help you locate the suppliers. Pay them directly
— Manish Mundra (@ManMundra) April 19, 2020
In addition to that, Manish Mundra has emphasized the need for the distribution to be done in a planned manner. “We need to do a statewise plan for PPE distribution to all key hospitals of Maharastra / MP / UP/ Rajasthan/ Bihar / Jharkhand. To identify key hospitals in the HotSpot and send them the PPE,” he said.
The idea is we send bulk PPE to one state each day and arrange to distribute it across. And can repeat the cycle for next two weeks. What we would need is identifying the hotspot Covid hospitals / compiling the address / contact person and number and planning the logistics
— Manish Mundra (@ManMundra) April 17, 2020
In the ongoing pandemic, Manish Mundra has come up with the slogan of “Let’s do more!” He says the entire team that has come together to fight for the cause has come together on Twitter, most of whom have never met each other in person. “The entire team developed through Twitter. Now we have few more team members making possible for us to reach far off destinations in 3/4 days. With the help of Indian Railways / Indian Post and other courier services. Anubhuti, Devang Dave, Ankit Jain, Bhoomika, Dharmendra Chonkar… we all came together through Twitter,” he said.
