Anuradha Paudwal donates 15 oxygen concentrators

With the increase in SOS calls for oxygen over the past couple of weeks, people from all walks of life are coming forward to help. Doing her bit, singer Anuradha Paudwal has donated 15 oxygen concentrators to hospitals in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

She got the idea when she decided to let go of her fees for a show being organised for Covid-19 patients and asked the organisers to instead help her with oxygen cylinders. “It got me thinking. I have a foundation that helps people in need… [Also] every year, on May 9, which is my husband

Arun Paudwal’s birth anniversary, we felicitate an artist. It’s been happening for 25 years. This year, we saw people — doctors, nurses, ward boys — working behind the scenes, and I talked to some over the phone and donated a ventilator to a hospital,” she tells us.

As news of the lack of oxygen started coming in, the 68-year-old decided to step up her initiative. “We were able to source some oxygen concentrators. The huge government hospitals get resources, so I donated to smaller hospitals,” she shares.

The singer also plans to video call hospitalised patients to cheer them up by singing for them. She says, “When you aren’t prepared for a situation so huge, there’s a lot of confusion... depression. We need to talk to people suffering from Covid and not keep them aside as if they’re untouchables.”

Huge hospitals get resources; I donated oxygen concentrators to smaller hospitals. ANURADHA PAUDWAL, Singer