Tisca calls out the ‘shameful neglect of governance’
In these testing times when the second wave of Covid-19 has wreaked havoc in the country, actor Tisca Chopra has stepped up in a big way and is working round the clock to help people in need via social media. She has been amplifying thousands of requests of people asking for oxygen, plasma, medicines and hospital beds. “We understand that it is [about] a life, one cry for help is [to save] one life. I don’t think I’d be able to sleep at night if I wasn't doing anything to help people at this time, my conscience would kill me,” she says, adding “It is just the shameful neglect of governance and I think all of us feel that very strongly. Despite that, if every single person steps up and helps two-three others around them, the problem can be mitigated. Last year was the trailer, this year is the main film — and it’s a horror.”
She recalls getting the first request for help around mid-April, after which there have been only more and more of them. “I took to social media to say if anybody needs anything they’d let me know... Lots of people who needed oxygen, plasma started to reach out and we began to amplify,” she says. In order to help maximum people, Chopra, 47, reveals that an informal group has been formed — consisting of a bunch of likeminded individuals – categorising, filtering and forwarding requests. “There’s a group for plasma, there’s a group for Delhi, and Mumbai. We’re reaching out to whoever we know. If I know somebody in the south (of India), an actor or someone prominent, I reach out to them also. We are using whatever we have, personal contacts, even cold calling or sending a direct message to who one doesn’t know personally, that’s how we’re working,” the actor concludes.