Covid in India: Online group helps Haryana lawmaker with oxygen support and cremations

Chandigarh - 300 volunteers helping families in pandemic fight.

By Web Report

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Published: Wed 12 May 2021, 3:50 PM

Last updated: Wed 12 May 2021, 4:01 PM

Hundreds of thousands of Indians face tremendous challenges while tackling the Covid crisis, especially when it impacts a dear one in the family. Many are unable to get a hospital bed, an ambulance, or even oxygen for the patient in dire need of it.

Fortunately, there are many organisations that work round-the-clock to ensure that these hapless people get some help and are able to battle not just Covid, but the accompanying problems of transportation and medication.


One such group is @TeamDeepender, which has 300 volunteers working day and night in 22 districts of Haryana, which helps patients and their relatives in getting hospital admissions, ambulances and in case of death, claim the bodies and ensure decent cremations.

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The group was started by low-profile parliamentarian, Deepender Hooda, a four-term Congress MP, and a member of the Rajya Sabha representing Haryana. Active on social media, its volunteers help desperate patients and relatives get hospital beds, doctors and counsellors, oxygen supplies and medicines.

Hooda thought of setting up the group of volunteers in March after the second wave of Covid-19 happened in India. “We constituted a team of 10-15 volunteers per district with another 20-strong team headed by me at the control room,” he told the Indian Express. “Today, around 300 volunteers are working round the clock across the state as requests pour in.”

The team has a success rate of 50 per cent while fulfilling the requests and over 70 per cent in terms of standing by them in their hour of need.

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