New Jersey Doc Providing Free Medical-Aid To Farmers Protesting In Delhi
Yes, we are still talking about the farmers protest in India. Its been over 100 days of protesting and the government has still not given them any solution. The only thing the government seems to be visibly doing is declaring anyone supporting the protest as anti-national and even going so far as declaring them as terrorists.
But positive stories of people from all across the world showing solidarity with the farmers protest and helping those in need keeps circulating and they sure need appreciation and recognition.
One such story is of an American doctor who decided to stay back in India to help the farmers during this hard time. He has been providing medical aid to hundreds who have been protesting throughout one of the harshest winters the country saw to the now sweeping hot waves of fast-approaching summer.
As reported by CNN, 34-year-old Dr. Swaiman Singh boarded a flight to India last December from New Jersey for a short visit to help a close family friend from his ancestral village in Punjab, who had suffered a stroke at one of the sites in New Delhi where farmers had been protesting for months.
View this post on Instagram
Singh had thought that he would reach New Delhi, set up a clinic, and pay some local doctors to staff it through a nonprofit he ran there. But once he arrived on the scene, he saw cases of heart attacks, cardiac arrests, diarrhea, vomiting, depression, and fear.
“It just seemed like this is what I had trained to do,” he told CNN. “This was the reason that I became a doctor.”
He just can’t imagine leaving the people who are fighting for their rights weathering all conditions nature and the government is throwing at them.
Also bringing the issue into global focus is Lilly Singh, one of the most vocal voices in support of the ongoing farmers protest in India. She used the stage of the 63rd Grammy Awards to highlight the agitation. The comedian arrived on the Grammys red carpet wearing a black mask that had “I Stand With Farmers” written on it.
Posting her photo on her Twitter page, Lilly Singh wrote, “I know red carpet/award show pictures always get the most coverage, so here you go media. Feel free to run with it #IStandWithFarmers #GRAMMYs.”
Over the past few years, India has seen common people protesting in large numbers against laws that the government has passed. The attitude of the government regarding these protests has not changed. May it be CAA or the on-going farmers protest, the Indian government refuses to lend a sympathetic ear and listen to the actual problems of the people and continues to arbitrarily proceed due to the sheer strength of their numbers in the Parliament.
This is why we need to keep talking about this and support those on the ground, like Dr. Swaiman Singh is doing, and use our voice wherever we can to show our solidarity on a global scale.
