From SHGs fighting against COVID-19 to adolescents working towards a plastic-free environment, top Social Stories of the week

Social enterprises attempting to eliminate homelessness, startups empowering healthcare providers to reduce medical errors, women self help groups producing sanitisers and safety equipment, young minds campaigning for a plastic-free environment, this week we saw the indomitable spirit of people in empowering the disadvantaged sections of the society and promoting social welfare. 

This 16-year-old is eliminating the usage of plastic straws in Delhi 

The next time you walk into a café at Delhi’s Khan Market to takeaway a cold coffee or a milkshake, it would most likely not be accompanied by a plastic straw. 

This could be because of the efforts of 16-year-old Aditya Mukarji, a school student who believes that single use plastic is “one of the most dangerous inventions by man”, and is trying his best to weed it out.

A Class 11 student of The Shri Ram School, Gurugram, Aditya embarked on a door-to-door campaign in and around NCR to spread awareness about plastic, its detrimental impact, and eco-friendly alternatives. In the last two years, he has been able to avert the use of more than 28 million plastic objects, including straws by persuading around 150 different commercial establishments to go plastic-free.

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Meet the old man who has been teaching children under a tree free of cost for the past 75 years

The elderly have been proactive ever since the pandemic began and the subsequent lockdowns that were declared by making contributions, masks, sanitisers, and PPE kits for the poor. 

An old man from Odisha has been teaching little children under a tree free of cost! This isn’t just a lockdown initiative, but a good deed that he sustained for the last 75 years, without stopping the classes even during these uncertain times. 

Nanda Prasty, the man behind this noble gesture, hails from Bartanda village, and has been educating children in Jajpur. He takes classes up to class 4, after which he recommends they join a primary school to continue their education.

How women self-help groups are producing masks and sanitisers amidst COVID-19

When the first nationwide lockdown was announced by the Government of India due to the rising coronavirus cases, the country witnessed a dearth of masks and sanitisers caused due to panic buying and confusion. 

On the other hand, millions of Indians had started migrating back home after losing their livelihoods in big cities. Amidst all this, hundreds of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) across India rose to the occasion to help the country fight the pandemic, and also employ people who lost their jobs.

In the last few months, over two lakh women had been involved in producing close to 10 crore masks across 27 Indian states. In fact, they have also helped in the production of over three lakh litres of sanitiser, and about 50,000 litres of handwash.

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This initiative is solving the migrant crisis in India with affordable housing

The coronavirus pandemic is not just a health crisis, but has also led to a crisis of shelter. Due to the sudden disappearance of jobs, many migrant workers could not afford to pay rent and decided to leave the cities for their places of origin despite travel restrictions.

Deepak K Viswanathan and Yugendran D, who launched Merestone Properties Pvt Ltd in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, back in 2012, are now on a mission to bring dignified living conditions through affordable housing for people at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

For the past two years, the team has been working on the design and functional aspects of affordable housing development to make the cost of owning property to as competitive as Rs 5 lakh per unit. They were able to do that by using technology, and working with state governments and stakeholders. 

This Mumbai-based company is enabling doctors to maintain accurate medical records faster

Despite the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare introducing the National Digital Health Blueprint in 2019 as well as setting standards for the integration of electronic records in 2016, only a handful of diagnostic centres and hospitals have implemented it.

Building and managing electronic health data has several advantages. It reduces medical errors, saves time, eliminates inefficiencies, and helps in achieving good patient care. To document medical records in a better and faster way, Scribetech, a Mumbai-based clinical transcription company, has launched its medical speech recognition solution in India.

Known as Augnito, the tool helps doctors and medical professionals to complete reports through dictation, rather than typing words on devices.