Shri Shrinivas Tripathi, a social worker who has overcome many obstacles in his lifetime has prudent insights into how can we act to be the power of people and be of purpose to the planet. On speaking to him he credits his nature of social work to his father, a school teacher, who seeded the thought of social work in his mind at a young age. Thereafter, there were many incidents that brought a young social worker to help people in need. He narrates the trying times of the Morbe dam burst, Latur earthquake and Covid pandemic and how he along with many helping hands made a difference. In time, it became a habit for him to help out people.
In the Latur earthquake, the land was devasted and nothing was available, he stepped in to build a shed to collect the food. Here he very humbly credits the people of the village saying “The people who were uneducated, illiterate and under privileged came forward to help inspite of losing their near and dear ones. They would make bhakhri and chutney from their meagre food that was available to them to make sure we had food to eat.” He says “In our country the more we go in the interior of our country, we realise that the values of Indian culture are very much in place”
“In the Morbe dam burst, I was 14 or 15 and when I went to assist the victims, I saw bodies floating in water, entire families wiped out, but the villagers both men and women still came out to help.”
It inspired him tremendously. His perception is that the nuclear family in our urban society is comfortable unless there is a time of crisis. In times of crisis, we need help from the society at large.
He believes that each individual can help in some way. He re-counts how in 1998-99, a Marathi medium school was a temporary structure in the area where he lived. Though the education was taken care of by the school he believed he could help in more ways. He contacted the local leaders who came forward. Incredibly by 2001, they were able to construct 14 classrooms and computer rooms for more than 60 students which is a better facility than even fancier private schools. He requested IIT professors to come once in a month to teach maths and English students to these students who belonged to the Marathi medium. 90% of these children came from poor homes and stayed in slums, their mothers worked as house maids. Now the children are scoring 90% in their board exam.
During Covid pandemic he started providing tea and biscuits to police personnel who were posted on the roadside, his associate Dr dixit helped him out with remedies from homeopathy to keep the groups immunity high (this was also distributed door to door later). The boost in immunity helped him as he and his co-workers were helping in disposing bodies where even the BMC workers were afraid to touch bodies of covid victims.
He believes everybody can participate in helping others whether it is medical camp, education, Women’s causes, awareness or anything else. He gives the example of a women that he knows who is a house wife and provides pads to school girls through a vending machine. This action in itself has increased attendance of girls students in school
When asked about what is power of people, he says “In my opinion power of people is positivity. Every human has the ability to be good or bad. I do not believe that there is any evil in that world. What maybe bad for me maybe good for someone else, and it is our view point that is important. Just like in Ramayan, Hanumanji had to be told by Jambvant that he has the ability to fly to Lanka, so also all that people need is a path to be shown.” “People are afraid to help even if they see that someone require helps but the new law helps a Good Samaritan to step up to help someone in need.”
To help a community even providing a phenyl bottle for the purpose of cleaning toilets would be helpful and not cost an arm and a leg. By making sure that the toilets are clean and hygienic, the illness is contained and this smallest deed will save many lives, says Shri Tripathi.
One can start from anywhere, from your community, from your building, go close to the tribals, to their homes and provide a simple help of providing mosquito nets, books, medicines.
Even the smallest donation makes us feel positive about ourselves and gives us confidence that we can help. It is important to create like-minded circle to help in the causes that help the society as well as builds your profession. His wisdom gives us the sage advise that kindness and the power to act is within ourselves.
