Woman constable spins big web of good deeds
DURG (CHHATTISGARH): Smita Tandi is a constable, but unlike any you may have come across. With 719,640 followers (and counting) on Facebook, few match the popularity and reach the Chhattisgarh policewoman has on the social media platform. What’s more, Tandi has gained her followers in barely 20 months of setting up her account.
Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh’s official Facebook page has more than 1 million ‘likes’, but that is a different parameter.
There is no PR machinery at work or paid followers in play on her account, according to Tandi, 24, who joined the police in January 2011. She believes the people’s connect she enjoys is due to the content of her posts — bringing the plight of the poor to light and urging people to help.
A personal tragedy and her desire to help others led Tandi to open her Facebook account in March 2015. “When I was undergoing police training in 2013, my father, Shiv Kumar Tandi, fell ill and I did not have enough money for his treatment. He too was a constable, but was given compulsory retirement in 2007 after an accident. Eventually, he died in a private hospital. Then, I thought that thousands of people die because of lack of money and decided to help,” Tandi told HT.
Tandi and her friends started a group in 2014 to help the poor. “We used to collect money for them. Many did not know of government initiatives and we would step in,” she said. “I decided to take the cause to Facebook. Initially, people did not respond to my posts, but in a month started donating money. I believe people accepted I was not ‘fake’ and trusted me.”
So, what makes her posts different from others and why her calls for crowdfunding work?
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