Feeding the hungry during the lockdown

It is heart-warming to learn from a report in The Daily Star that a group of Dhaka University students led by a DUCSU member has been serving free sehri and iftar meals among around 1,000 hungry people every day on the campus. The students have been providing food to the underprivileged since the beginning of the shutdown on March 26. Encouraged by this initiative, their friends, several professors of the university, politicians and DU alumni have also come forward to help them as much as they can so that the students can continue feeding those who have lost their income and are unable to buy food for themselves as well as for their families.

As this daily reported recently, the ongoing countrywide shutdown has taken away income opportunities from tens of thousands of people. And the urban poor who mostly used to work in the informal sector have been hit hard by the pandemic, as they are not getting much help from the authorities concerned. Although the government has been trying to provide financial and food assistance to the poor across the country to help them survive through the pandemic, this is just not enough.

Individuals, associations, voluntary organisations, and student bodies all should come forward to overcome this huge humanitarian crisis. As we know, some voluntary organisations including the Bidyananda Foundation have been doing a tremendous job of helping people fight the crisis. Students of pharmacy, chemistry and biochemistry departments at DU and JNU have been preparing hand sanitisers to distribute among the poor. Many student organisations in and outside the capital have been providing the working class with food and other assistance. Moreover, some student organisations have been trying to help farmers harvest their boro crops. All these initiatives taken by the students make us optimistic about our young people's sincerity in helping the vulnerable. We hope to see more such initiatives by not only students, but also others in society.