Muslim groups doing their part to help as India’s COVID deaths pass 300,000

India officially passed the 300,000 mark for COVID-19 deaths on Monday morning (May 24), according to the ministry of health. As the country’s healthcare system continues to buckle under the weight of  the deadly second wave of the pandemic, Muslim organisations are doing their part to provide help.

“The system has failed. People are scared. People are helpless,” Tayyab Ahsan Baksh told Salaam Gateway.

The management graduate with an Islamic finance consulting background has been helping people by providing oxygen cylinders in New Delhi’s Chandni Chowk.

Masjid Shahi Bagh Wali, of which he is a trustee, has been running a COVID-19 Relief Centre since last year, helping thousands with food and medical support. This year, the centre has served over 600 with oxygen cylinders and refills in its surrounding locality.

Tayyab is leveraging all his networking and managerial skills to provide help. Mosques, he believes, should be at the centre of all humanitarian activities and benefit all communities.

“The masjid should not be only for the namaz (prayer) but should function as a community centre, a rehabilitation centre, a welfare centre and a development centre,” said Tayyab, who is the CEO of a private company.

The centre has so far distributed medicines on a needs basis and helped over 2,000 with machines to help with breathing such as the CPAP and BIPAP, and other medical equipment. They work on a return-after-use basis.

“90% of the beneficiaries are non-Muslims as the COVID patients in the area happen to be predominantly non-Muslims. The drive was very well appreciated by other communities,” Tayyab said with a sense of pride.

More than 30 volunteers from the locality are working around the clock attending phones to guide callers with information regarding the availability of hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and ambulances.

The centre will continue to help as long as it can, said Tayyab.

COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS IN CHENNAI

Like Tayyab in New Delhi in the north, Hameed Riswan, Zia Akhtar and Ali Akbar are helping people in the southern city of Chennai.

“Collaboration is the keyword of our operation at COVID Relief Force (CRF),” Hameed told Salaam Gateway, speaking on behalf of the team of professionals and entrepreneurs.

They have brought help to those in need in a collaborative way by coordinating disparate individuals and groups working in isolation to engage on a shared platform. The initiative has ensured greater access to sparse resources spread among diverse help-points.

“We have set up a war room of 20 teams, catering to different needs; like pharma team, doctor team, ambulance team and so on – all these are supported by more than 50 volunteer groups in the city and 600 in the state,” Hameed said.

The collaborative model has helped attract donors to finance small social organisations in need of funds. The team does the due diligence on these organisations to verify their claims and needs.

“With crowdfunding, we have managed to deliver direct money transfer to the beneficiaries to the tune of around 2 million rupees ($165,000),” said Zia.

The sudden spike in COVID cases has put unprecedented pressure on India’s already over-burdened health infrastructure, with many living in highly dense neighbourhoods with narrow lanes finding it difficult to get ambulances to reach them on time.

To address this problem, CRF joined hands with Social Work Team Trust (SWOTT), founded by social activist and businessperson Sameer Ansari, and Independent Rental Vehicle Association, to convert 7+1-seater vehicles into scalable Taxi Ambulances with oxygen facilities.

With oxygen cylinders in short supply, Ali said the life-saving support has been pushed into the black market and growing further out of reach of the poor.

CRF and SWOTT are on the cusp of building and releasing an economically-priced oxygen concentrator, said Ali.

IN THE EAST IN KOLKATA

In the east of India in Kolkata, a group of 100 professionals from different fields have come together to set up the Society of Muslim Professionals (SMP) to give medical consultancy, counselling for mental health issues, and updated information on the availability of hospital beds.

“While our support base includes professionals originally mostly from Kolkata, many of our members are now working in different parts of the world,” said one of the key members who didn’t want to be named as “it’s a teamwork”. 

“They all are extending support whatever possible ways they can.”

SURAT IN GUJARAT

In the western diamond city of Surat in Gujarat, Sajid Ahmad Khan Pathan was instrumental in building an isolation centre for COVID patients.

“The 50-bed isolation centre we readied is currently functional only in the Outpatients’ Department (OPD) as we have a smaller number of COVID cases that need hospitalisation,” said Sajid.

“If the number increases in future, we will make it functional.” 

Last year they started by distributing food packets and food grains to thousands of migrant workers who were left jobless as factories and companies shut during the lockdown.

The centre is continuing with food packet distributions and have so far helped 900 people.

MUMBAI

In the finance capital of India, Mohammed Ashfaq Kazi, the head Mufti of Mumbai’s iconic Juma Masjid, successfully persuaded a number of people to channel their zakat in Ramadan to help rebuild small enterprises that suffered losses during the pandemic.

“People should come together at the micro level to form their own groups comprising of friends and relatives and channel their zakat towards committed long-term elevation of the needy identified in their own knowledge,” said the Mufti.

Others heeded his Ramadan pleas by adopting a family, taking up the responsibility of educating young children, and paying community members’ hospitalisation expenses.

Companies are also making sure they take care of their own.

Octaware Technologies Ltd., an IT and consulting firm with offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru, UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, has been providing all-expenses-paid hotel quarantine and a 24x7 dedicated helpline for medical and psychological assistance for its current and former employees, in partnership with hospitals and counsellors.

“Shariah compliance goes far beyond just the financial component of profit and loss and interest-free transactions,” said Octaware chairperson and MD Aslam Khan.

“It means the entrepreneur has to manage and administer the business in a manner that ensures justice and welfare.”

The company has adapted with 100% work-from-home operations, and eschewed lay-offs, deductions or deference of salaries to continue supporting its staff. It has also offered full encashment in lieu of accrued leave, and performance bonuses.

“We are also assisting our employees and their families get ICU beds, injections and other emergency help,” said Aslam.

A philanthropic and social worker, Aslam also runs RIDA Foundation that has taken on a number of social initiatives like running a micro-hospital and rehabilitation centres for the differently-abled. It is now addressing the problem of oxygen shortages in rural areas.

The foundation realised its initial project of developing oxygen concentrators with open-source design would take some time and shifted to procuring readily-available devices for the communities that need them.

“We have readied a fund for 20 units but could manage to procure two ten-litre (oxygen concentrators) for Aligarh and are sourcing for the rest.

“Simultaneously, we are getting some from the USA and South Africa through air cargo.”

DIGNIFIED BURIALS

While access to medical facilities such as hospital beds, oxygen and medicines remain a major challenge, many are also deprived of dignified cremations as cemeteries and crematoriums run out of space.

In the early phase of the pandemic, there were many instances when Muslims were cremated instead of buried as residents objected to burial fearing infection. 

While that fear has been somewhat addressed after courts and government officials intervened, many Muslims are still finding it difficult to secure burials in cities like Mumbai where most cemeteries have run out of ground.

Mumbai’s Bara Qabrastan is among the very few still taking COVID dead bodies in the city. The person making sure this happens is Shuaib Khatib, the chairperson of Juma Masjid of Bombay Trust, the custodian of the burial ground.

“We have also been scouting for unclaimed bodies of COVID patients lying in various hospitals of Mumbai to give them a dignified cremation, both Muslims and non-Muslims as per their faith,” he said.

From late March to the end of April, his team provided burials for 230 Muslims, 45 of which were unclaimed in hospitals.

*Correction: Aslam Khan's position was corrected from CEO to chairperson and MD of Octaware.

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