Indian nationals in the Netherlands are watching the spread of coronavirus back home with dread as the death toll mounts. So far at least 400,000 people have died, although the real total may be far higher, and some 50,000 new cases are being reported on a daily basis.

A cyclone in West Bengal and the upward march of a fungal infection that is attacking Covid patients are making the situation even worse.

Travel between India and the Netherlands has been put on hold for months – although flights have now been resumed since the Netherlands brought in mandatory quarantine legislation. But this and other restrictions on travel from outside the EU means many Indian nationals in the Netherlands have not seen their family for over a year.

Having had enough of watching from the sidelines as the tragedy unfolds in their home country many are now involved with fundraising activities to try to help.

Sudip Lahiri, the head of financial services Europe at HCL, says the pandemic has had a devastating effect on the lives of many Indians regardless of whether they are staying in India or residing abroad.

‘I have lost several of my colleagues in the past six months and three of them are from my own team,’ says Lahiri, who has lived in the Netherlands for the past 20 years.

‘I personally had to be on phone calls during odd hours and coordinate with my network to ensure that the impacted people find oxygen and proper medical care. This has been devastating as a human being and sometimes I felt helpless because of the massive shortage of resources to support those who have been affected.’

Registered charities

Lahiri is one of the founders of the Indo Dutch Care network, a registered charity in the Netherlands that has sent several oxygen concentrators to West Bengal via its Bengal Calling programme.

‘While this is a small step, we are excited that we could contribute and do our bit,’ he says. ‘We are now planning the 2^nd phase where we will send our next shipment to support the initiatives of the West Bengal government.’

Amit Ray, another of the Indo Dutch Care founders says that he too has been affected in many ways. ‘Many people I or my wife knew personally passed away from Covid and my own elderly parents were infected and hospitalized for some time,’ he says.

‘In particular, the devastating effect the pandemic was having on the poorer sections of society was difficult to deal with,’ says Ray, a resident of the Netherlands since 1998. ‘Apart from illness and death, they were having to cope with the loss of their jobs and struggling to put food on their plates.’

Education

This, says Ray, is why the Indo Dutch Care foundation will now start collecting relief for other sectors, such as providing food for the poor or sponsoring education for children whose parents have lost their livelihoods. ‘We also hope the Dutch government will help people to not only survive the pandemic but to put their children through school.’

Prakash Ayer, a commercial group leader at Cognizant who has lived in the Netherlands for 16 years, says he remembers hearing the devastating news on April 24. ‘People were dying because they could not breathe,’ he says. Ayer tried to organise shipments of oxygen concentrators as a practical help but was caught out by the weekend and the King’s Day festivities. ‘It was a terrible weekend,’ he says. ‘Everything was closed here, and in India people were dying.’

Over the following weeks, Ayer was able to use his vast network, including the Indian community leaders, social workers, and business school colleagues, to source and send oxygen contractors back to India, firstly to NGOs, later to private organisations. ‘Whatever we could get, we sent,’ he says. ‘After all, everything was going to get used.’

Horror story

‘It was a horror story that was being played out across India. We had to do whatever we could do,’ says Ayer, whose own parents, who have been vaccinated, live in Mumbai which is still in lockdown. ‘We just had to try to do something.’
Technology consultant Pramod Agrawal has not seen his friends and family for 1.5 years and says he has lost several people in his close network.

‘I have come to realise the power of simple courtesy phone call, small financial support or activating networks to arrange for some life-saving drugs back in India,’ he told DutchNews.nl.

Agrawal, who has lived in the Netherlands for 20 years, is on the steering committee at FIDE (Foundation for Indian Diaspora in Europe) and vice president in charge of programmes at the FCCI (Foundation for Critical Choices for India), both of which are involved in getting aid, particularly oxygen and drugs, to the areas affected the most.

‘We managed to raise nearly €50,000 in less than two weeks,’ he says. ‘Members got in touch with different governmental as well as non-governmental bodies in India to identify potential hospitals where they could facilitate the shipment of oxygen concentrators from Europe.’

In total, 136 oxygen concentrators have been shipped to various states across India so far.

Food aid

‘This was indeed a very powerful example of the type of public-spirited leadership that needed to get every aid safely to the other side of the pandemic,’ he says.

In addition, the foundation has identified 1,100 families in the suburbs of the city of Bangaluru who had no income and organized a supply of grocery packets to them.’

‘It is time, not to think just about the Netherlands or India,’ he says. ‘All countries have to come together in the fight against Covid-19. We simply can’t be protected here unless the global population gets vaccinated. This is time for solidarity and to share resources.’

Entrepreneur and publisher Satarupa Bose Roy has lived in the Netherlands for some 15 years and says she is finding it hard to watch the pandemic unfold in India from afar.

‘My father had coronavirus even after his second dose of vaccine and I had to arrange everything from here,’ she says. ‘Several of my close friends here have lost their parents in India and they were not able to go. This makes me all the more sad and worried and concerned.’

Donations

In particular, she says, the situation in West Bengal has been compounded by a cyclone a month ago, which washed away thousands of homes. ‘They don’t have drinking water, no shelter, no food. If coronavirus has taught me one thing, that is solidarity… a value that stands the test of time and circumstances.’

‘We are not working for a good cause anymore, we are working because there is a real need,’ she says. ‘So I would ask people to come together, join hands with us. Donate generously. Together we can make a difference.’

People who wish to donate to the relief effort in India should do so either through the FCCI or Indo Dutch Care Network or any small grassroots organisation in India they are familiar with, Ayer says.

‘But be warned,’ he says. ‘Bureaucracy can be a challenge sending money to a good cause in India, but if you are sending a small amount to a local group it should be okay.’