PositiveNewsCorner

When doctors and nurses treating Covid-19 patients are fighting a daily battle—at hospital and in neighbourhoods, where they have been outcasted for “handling infection”—a final-year student at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) convinced her father to give out their two flats rent free to these health workers.

After the 26-year-old made a post on the social media, two doctors and a nurse got in touch with her.

Suchana Saha had been upset ever since she read about the humiliation and abuse that the frontline health workers treating Covid-19 patients faced. Her businessman father owns two flats in Nagerbazar that had been given out on rent till six months ago. “On Thursday, I asked my father if we could give them out to accommodate displaced doctors and nurses treating Covid-19 patients. This will be our small contribution in the fight against the virus. We will not take any rent from boarders,” Saha said.

Her father, Pranab Kumar Saha, was more than happy to help out. His only condition has been that the two flats will be given to only “displaced doctors and nurses handling people infected with novel coronavirus”.

Since the flats have not been in use for six months, they need cleaning and sanitization before use. Suchana’s brother, Swarnabh, next-door neighboor, Tapasi Mondal, and cook, Jyotsna Mondal, helped her in the first round of cleaning. “My ISC has just got over. Way before the lockdown started, my sister cautioned all of us at home about how this disease might impact us. It was her idea to give out these flats,” said the 18-year-old.