By Irudhaya Jothi

Kolkata: Catholic priests and nuns in West Bengal have been engaged with a multipronged approach to curtail the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

The second wave of the virus surged in the eastern Indian state March-April when it was going through an election process. Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta, head of the Catholic Church in the state, met with leaders of various religious congregations several times to devise a strategy to tackle the spread of the virus.

For this, the local unit of the Conference of Religious India set up a think tank with priests and nuns and later incorporated a few lay leaders and experts.

Archbishop D’Souza on May 17 sent out a circular enumerating intervention made by religious congregations and the archdiocese along with the state government machinery and hospitals.

The archbishop listed initiatives such Covid related Helplines set up at Jesuit’s St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, Salesian communication center Nitika and archdiocesan youth commission.

Youth commission director Father Michael Biswan says, “We have set up a 24/7 helpline with three fulltime personnel to attend and direct those who are in need to closeby center for medical help. If needed the centers would reach out to them with food and medical helps.”

Nitika director Salesian Father Gilbert Choondal says that around 100 counsellors are ready round the clock to reach out to the needy in 20 different languages.

“Many families are inconsolable with the loss of family members or the entire family affected by the Covid,” Father Choondal told Matters India. Some, he added, need pastoral support and others need just an empathetic listening.

St. Joseph Hospital West Midnapur district has set aside a Covid care unit, while St. Xavier’s University has set apart a block for 20 patients for isolation, outreach work and medical care.

St. Xavier’s college at Ragabpur in South 24 Parganas has offered a building for Covid care.

Kolkata Mary Ward Social Centre under the Loreto sisters has set up ‘Covid Test on Wheels’ and supplies a minimum of 200 hot cocked food packets daily though ‘Food on Wheels’ to ‘Pritidin,’ a Covid safe home set up by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. They plan to expand the services to more Covid affected families, says Loreto Sister Monica Suchiang.

The Asansol diocese has already set up a Safe Home for Covid patients at Chetana Ashram, Burdwan, some 150 km northwest of Kolkata. Three more safe home centers are being worked out with the collaboration of the state government.

Asansol diocese already has a 54-bed quarantine facility set up in Loreto School and another 60-bed facility n St. Joseph School. Asansol town is around 215 km north of Kolkata, the state capital.

Diocesan Father Wilson Fernandes operates a free ambulance services in Burdwan for the poor.

The priest said he launched the project after ambulances charged 20,000 to 25,000 rupees for a Burdwan-Kolkata trip.

The ambulance service, part of the Asansol diocese’s Covid task force team, assures that free ambulance is available round the clock. Fr Fernandes has kept a driver to help him. Otherwise he drives the ambulance. According to the priest, a free ambulance service is “very much a need of the hour” as critical cases of Covid have increased.

The Calcutta Archdiocese has set up a Covid fund and asked those interested to contribute to the fund. It also clarified that only Indian money was accepted.

The archbishop’s circular says the archdiocese plans to set up oxygen parlors, more quarantine centers in Kolkata and vaccination centers in the archdiocese.

In North Bengal, various religious congregations joined the diocese of Bagdogra to help people in tea garden areas. They have set up quarantine and vaccination centers and launched a massive immunisation awareness program with some NGO partners such as the Right To Food Campaign.

The diocese of Darjeeling has come out with a Covid isolation center at St Joseph’s College, jointly sponsored by the alumni and the Jesuits’ Darjeeling province.

Bishop Stephen Lepcha of Darjeeling blessed and inaugurated the isolation centre at Campion Hall of the college.

Jesuit Father Stanly Varghese, college Rector, described their Covid response as a collective effort of people from various walks of life along with students present and past. Government health department and even political leaders and groups have also offered to collaborate, he added.

“50 bed St. Joseph isolation centre is primarily for economically deprived and weaker section of society.” Father Varghese told Matters India.