Arvind Vihar, Bhopal Franchisee – Water. Org
Story by: Vaishali Sharma
Picture courtesy: Jayendra Ji
The pandemic has indeed opened up new opportunities to enhance our potential by displaying humility towards self and others. We have realised now that there’s no need to rush upon things.
Empathy and humility is the key ingredient when helping those suffering from instability and pressure during this difficult situation. Our frontline workers, such as Asha workers, panchayat members, operators, sanitation workers, are also somehow susceptible to uncertainty and needs upliftment to manage themselves with positivity.
Similar to this context, today I am going to highlight some empathetic initiatives that were shared by the franchisee Jayendra Ji from Arvind Vihar, Bhopal.
The franchise model is one of the models of Piramal Sarvajal that leverages the entrepreneurial skills of local people with their technology and equipment. With the support of water.org’s small financing to the franchisee, the plant was implemented to provide safe, affordable and accessible drinking water.
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Figure1: Hand
Gloves, sanitisers and masks have inculcated in daily habits among our
frontliners |
When asked about the situations at the beginning of the lockdown, he shares “Amid the lockdown my family and closed ones were quite disturbed. Many of my friends who work in different places, wanted to come back to their hometown.”
“When the lockdown was announced, I and my team collectively decided to provide camper supply on alternate days as my employee’s health was on topmost priority to me”
Franchisee Jayendra Ji has 4 employees working under him. After a month of lockdown two of his workers wanted to go back to their village. They were unable to move, as there were no transportation facilities. Without any second thought, Jayendra Ji decided to arrange a car to drop them to their respective villages.
He shared “maine mere employees ko bola acche se jaao koi tension nahi lena, baadme jab bhi situation theek hoti hai tabhi waapis aana”
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| Figure2: Campers are
used only when they are sanitised properly |
This shows how the franchisee treats his employees with humility as they are front liners and always ready to serve the community.
The consumers have also agreed to receive campers on the alternate days and were satisfied with the decision.
He shared “kitne log apne employees ko kaam se nikaal rahe hai, mai soch bhi nahi sakta ye cheeze kyonki isse insaan mentally bohot tut jaata hai. Maine shuruaat se abhi tak yahi bola hai, yaha raho araam se, kaam karo koi load nahi lena, aur yahi khaao piyo”
He further narrates “chaaro ke liye maine shuruaat mai hi sanitsers, gloves aur masks ka arrangement kar diya tha taaki koi bhi sankramit na ho paaye. Humare kaam ki wajah se unki families affect nahi honi chahiye. Baaki cheeze aaj nahi toh kal theek ho jaengi, kaam bhi chalega, par abhi apne logo ka dhyan rakhna aur support karna jyada zaruri hai”
He ends his conversation saying; “I am thankful that I have a home to stay and all basic facilities.
By experiencing these situations in the last two months, I realised that we need to evolve mentally and display empathy towards others to deal with this pandemic which I believe can certainly reduce the spread of COVID-19 infection.”
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