Currently, the environment is highly hostile even for the people staying inside their houses. So Hatke Story has brought this ‘Tales of Corona Survivors’ series to spread positivity and awareness among the crowd. We will be featuring corona warriors, social workers arranging oxygen cylinders, corona patients, doctors, and their families in this series. Only to tell you what is going on the ground. 

To add to this series, we got connected to Akash Barua. He belonged to Agra but later migrated to Gwalior. Akash was from a middle-class family. After taking admission to an English medium school, his ranks went down, and he began to fail his exams. From his college days, he started working to meet his daily necessities. While working for a transport company, he joined an NGO and began to work as a social worker. Rest is history. 

Currently, he is serving as a corona warrior and providing oxygen cylinders, cremating unclaimed dead bodies, arranging hospital beds, medicines, and ambulance facilities for covid patients. 

We wished to know his journey as a social worker and wanted to appreciate his efforts, so we connected with him to know more about the ground realities, life, and experience. So here is another covid story for you. Let’s hear it from him. 

Arranging Oxygen Cylinders – Akash Barua – My Story

I’m Akash Barua. I was born in Gwalior and brought up in Agra. Then due to some reasons, we shifted back to Gwalior. Since my childhood, I wasn’t good with my studies. 

After coming back from Agra, my parents admitted me to an English medium school. English has been my weak point from the start, so that I couldn’t adjust to the change, and I began to fail in different subjects. It demotivated me a lot. Then my academic performance never went up. 

So getting a good job was out of the question. During my second year in college, I started selling pan cards to arrange my pocket money. However, it didn’t pay well. In the third year of my college, I worked as a security guard in a locality near our village. The area was some 15 km away from my village. I used to travel 30 km per day. I often got injured in that job, so I called it to quit, and then I began to work for a transportation company from morning 6 am to 3 pm.

Akash Barua Social Activist

I joined an NGO through this job, and my journey as a social worker took a new turn. I began to teach poor children free of cost. I enjoyed serving and helping people. Unfortunately, the company got closed due to some unknown reason, so I had to leave the NGO. 

After a while, I met a person who lived in the same locality where I used to work as a security guard. He loved cycling, so he invited me to join a bicycle rally. It sounded fascinating, so the next day, I participated in the rally. We became friends. We often talked about life, and he’d always say, ‘Akash, we adapt our environment and evolve accordingly. You will do what people around you are doing. There are high chances of you following the footsteps of your friends and acquaintances. So always connect with optimistic people who believe in spreading positivity.’

It was the greatest lesson of my life. His words left a substantial impact on my mind. He was a high position officer but very kind by heart. I learned many essential things from him. He motivated me to join some NGO back and serve more as a social worker. 

In 2018, I worked with many NGOs. Many times, I was awarded for my excellent work. 

Akash Barua campaign against Plastic

I also worked in Swachha Bharat Abhiyan in 2019. Currently, I am the vice president of the Rotaract Club of Gwalior Youth. Later, I registered my NGO in a partnership with a friend, but he kicked me out of it due to his insecurities. Again, I joined other NGOs to work more for people. Currently, I’m Working as charter president of Rotaract Club of Gwalior Regal Rid 3053 and for my organization Gurukul Dream foundation, which is working for youth development.

During the pandemic, we saw people struggling for necessary things like medicines, oxygen cylinders, hospital beds, plasma, food, ration, etc. We decided to take the matter in hand and work for covid patients. In earlier days, we launched the Gwalior plasma bank so no one would die due to the lack of plasma.

Apart from it, we arranged medicines, hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, and food for covid patients and their families. We helped crematorium workers in performing the last rites of abundant dead bodies.

April was a disastrous month for humanity. Private hospitals were looting the ordinary public. Booking a single bed in a private hospital is priced around 10 thousand rupees. It is only the cost of occupying a single bed. Doctor’s treatment, medicines, and covid care were priced differently. Ambulance service was charging 3 to 5 thousand rupees for covering a mere 5 km distance. Above this, charges were beyond your expectations. It’s simply 600 rupees to 1000 rupees per kilometer.

The loot subsided when we complained against it. However, it’s still going on. You won’t believe it, one man had sold his wife’s jewelry and leased his house to save his brother’s life, but he couldn’t survive. The man didn’t have money to cremate his brother’s body. We paid for it. Another family was charged 17 lakh rupees for their son’s treatment, who didn’t even survive. These are just a few stories. Covid has destroyed everything.

Akash Barua distributing masks

Sometimes families didn’t want to take dead bodies to their homes or even perform the last rites. I used to feel so sad about it when people refused to take the bodies of their loved ones or parents. One man admitted his corona-positive mother to Agra’s hospital. Unfortunately, she couldn’t survive, so we told him to take the body, but he said no on our face. They directly tell us, ‘Sorry, I can’t come. I can’t do it because I’m busy, so please do it by yourself.’ Helplessly, we had to cremate her body. This situation is very disheartening.

Hospitals said we have more dead bodies in our mortuary ward, but you don’t have enough space to burn them. Make some space so we can get rid of these bodies. Hospitals weren’t providing precise data about patients. We raised this concern to the higher authority. Now, we have the actual data of everything. 

People had spread rumors against the covid vaccine, and some of them are still doing rounds. Vaccine hesitancy has reduced, but it’s not non-negligible. The government must do proper counseling. 

In June, the situation is much more stable compared to April. The ground-level situation is still very terrible. I feel the government needs to take strict action against hospital loot and covid mismanagement. Also, vaccination is essential for all of us.

In the end, I want to say that to deal with covid. We need to work as a team. Help others and take your vaccine shot. Also, convince others to take it. We have to ensure that every person should be treated equally, and everybody must receive good care and treatment.

Connect with Akash if you need any help regarding Covid. 

Phone Number – 8269250197

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Do you have an interesting incident or experience to share with the world? Write to us, and together we can discuss how to weave your story and present it to the world. Would you mind sending us your story?