Muslim survivors of Delhi violence develop PPE kits for COVID19 warriors

Two months after the communal violence in North East Delhi, Muslim women survivors of the violence engaged in stitching work have developed Personal Protective Equipment kits for warriors fighting the battled against Covid19.

They want these PPE kits given to those who are fighting the virus on the frontline. 

Talking to Karvaan India, one of the women said, “We were left with nothing by our side until some people working as relief volunteers came to our rescue. They bought stitching machines for us and asked us to restart our work.” 

“Now that we have skills, and we wanted to give it back to society, what else could be better than contributing to fight against COVID? At the moment there is news everywhere that in the fight against a virus, there is a shortage of PPE kits, we wanted to fill in the gap with our small efforts,” She added.

However, she refuses to be identified, stating that she fears that police might ask them to stop even doing this. 

“I want to remain anonymous and want to do the good work. See what they did to Kafil Khan for doing good work. We don’t want to become a target like him,” She said.

Post Delhi violence, an organisation led by IIT Delhi scholar Aasif Mujtaba was closely working with the survivors of pogrom and helped this group of women buy raw material and stitching to restarts their livelihood. 

Talking to Karvaan India, Aasif said, “I am myself surprised. These little acts will keep humanity alive. They were attacked for being Muslims, but now they have developed PPE kits for warriors against Corona across faith and religion, this shows their courage and resilience to restore humanity and at the same time fight for their rights.” 

Explaining his journey with the victims so far, Aasif said, “During the first week of our visit to Shiv Vihar somewhere around March 2, I was approached by few women who had lost their stitching work because of the pogrom. The rioters burnt their house and their source of livelihood, But they wanted to start the stitching work asap. To rehabilitate the business, we bought two automatic Stitching machines ( they call it ghuggi) and gave it to them along with some money to buy the raw materials. And today, for a surprise, they came with 2000, 3-Ply masks and 100 PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) ` kits. They requested me to give it all to the needy and the poor. Their gesture moved me. They might have lost every other thing in the pogrom but humanity. The 45th day of relief and rehabilitation work at Shiv Vihar, It seems, was extraordinarily different and full of hope.”

Team Miles2Smile will donate a few kits to police personnel who are working day and night to ensure the well-being of the public.

The PPE kits will also be available for sale on the organisations website,  www.miles2smile.org. The organisation has been working with survivors of Delhi violence for the past one and a half month.