On Wednesday morning, the residents of Chinsurah in West Bengal’s Hooghly district, around 50 kilometres north of Kolkata, were in for a surprise. A man dressed up like coronavirus was moving around in the local markets to spread awareness against Covid-19.
42-year-old Milan Pandey could not keep himself from dressing up as the virus and stepped out of his home despite the lockdown.
“Every day I could see people moving around on the streets despite the lockdown. Many of them might have had some urgency but some people had no reason to step out. They were not even maintaining social distance. So I decided to raise awareness,” he said.
Pandey is a wage labourer and is out of work now due to the lockdown. A few days ago, he had approached the local police station requesting them to allow him to spread the awareness. The police asked him to stay home.
“But I decided to do something for society. I prepared a placard, dressed up in red, prepared a cap with protruding sticks and made a loudspeaker out of paper. I then hit the road,” said Pandey.
But that was not all. Pandey even wore a mask and tied some sticks around his waist to practice social distancing. In this manner, he roamed about in the markets of Chinsurah and spread his message.
Large parts of urban and semi-urban areas of Hooghly district, along with some gram panchayat areas, have been declared Covid-19 containment zones by the state administration.
“I told people not to crowd, not to spit on the roads, wear masks and maintain social distance,” he added.
The locals welcomed Pandey’s move who, despite his unemployment and hardships, decided to spread awareness against the disease that has killed lakhs of people across the world.
“It was really good to see that a man who was facing hardships hit the streets to raise awareness and save others,” said Taraknath Das, a resident of Chinsurah.