Inspired by 'Ustad Hotel', this collector is on a mission to make Madurai hunger-free
Having loved ones in the hospital is emotionally draining, and family members often end up neglecting their own needs. It gets more difficult if they are economically vulnerable, as they cannot afford to buy food from hotels for days at a stretch. So most of them end up skipping meals and going hungry. The brainchild of Madurai's Collector Vishnu Chandran, a joint initiative by the Madurai Corporation and an NGO, Palakarangal, is making sure that such a situation doesn't arise at Madurai Government Hospital.
The goal of the project, titled 'Pasi Illa Madurai' (Madurai without hunger), is to make Madurai hunger-free. The initiative was conceived when the then trainee collector Vishnu Chandran watched a Malayalam film titled Ustad Hotel. To The News Minute, Vishnu said,
“The movie (Ustad Hotel) shows a man who came to Madurai and provided free food to the needy, so when I came to Madurai, this idea struck me. The then corporation commissioner, Sandeep sir and I, spoke to hotels and asked them if they would like to sponsor food once a week, or maybe once a month.”
Talking about bringing the initiative to the hospital, he said,
“We decided to start this first at a hospital, because there are so many people there who need food.”
Meenakshi Caterers in Madurai has taken up the task of providing food for one year. In the seven months since the beginning of the project, 500–600 people have been provided with lunch on a daily basis. Once the food reaches the hospital, 8–10 volunteers from Palakarangal help serve it. The food is served from 12:30-2 pm. Talking to The Hindu about the people they serve, Palakarangal's founder, Alima Banu Sikkandhar, said,
“Mostly driven by poverty and unemployment these are out-station families whose kith and kin are admitted to cancer, gynaecology, cardiology, and HIV wards with a stay period of five days to one month.”
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