Emergency Response

Mission Statement

We are a group of proud activist from all strata of society, who believe that every human being has the right to live a dignified life. We believe in Promoting peaceful and inclusive Noble societies for sustainable development, provide access to Education, Health, Environment, Peace and Justice for all, and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

We also believe that humans by birth have the right to live a dignified life. Which includes right to education, proper health care services and fulfillment of basic necessities like food, clothing and shelter. We pledge that we will fight for the rights of people and as far as possible try to provide them with these rights which otherwise go neglected. We will also promote the efforts of other individuals by bringing their work in the forefront by building a platform that celebrates such efforts.

The word Noble has two different meanings – belonging by birth, rank or hierarchy to the aristocracy, or showing high moral principles. We reject the concept that humans only deserve respect based on birth or rank. We embrace the aim of working to high moral principles.

Problem Statement (First Wave - 2020)

On 24th of March, 2020 India announced the first phase of Lockdown that continued up to 31st May, 2020 in 3 more phases. This was a complete lock down. People were inside their homes (well, those who were lucky enough to have homes) and were allowed out only to buy essentials. The consensus was that this was the right thing to do. What was overlooked altogether was that 80 percent of India’s working population is from the unorganized sector. They are daily wage workers, migrant labourers, who go hungry if they don’t work for a day. The more privileged in society believed that this was the cost that had to be paid for everyone’s safety. All I want us to do is to remember those who bore the burden of COVID-19. And perhaps stop more suffering in the coming months.

Lockdown version 1.0 and 2.0 pushed millions in India’s capital city to the verge of poverty and humiliation.Version 3.0 and 4.0 left them helpless and hungry.Most of them were thrown out of their houses as they were unable to pay the rents (Yes you read it correctly). The very people who helped build the luxury homes of Shining New India were thrown out of their own homes. This left them with no choice but to return back to their rural roots. But at the time of need there was no one who stood by them. They were left alone to fight for their life. This was the beginning of the mass exodus of the Migrant workers. Many just started walking on foot to cover a distance of thousands of miles, men, women, children and elderly alike, as they couldn’t afford the transportation. Some made it till the end, some gave up and some died on the way.This is still continuing. The media gave heed to it as long as they were getting high Television Rating Points. And once they got what they wanted they moved on to another story. We can’t blame them, can we? After all, who cares whether these poor and marginalized people live or die? Or do we?

NCF's Response during Lockdown

NCF started a network of likeminded individuals and we began visiting places where migrant labourers were clustered. We took all the necessary precautions. The initial need was to provide food and drinking water so we organized drives to help them out. We started this work during the second week of Lock Down and even today the need has not been fulfilled rather it has grown 4 fold. It is distressing when you see that although you have filled the vehicles with loads of food materials, there are still hundreds whom you are not able to feed. They stand there in the line for their turn to come and when there is no food left, they just turn away and keep walking. Some of them get angry out of mere frustration and some of them say nothing. They just accept it as their destiny. They hope that somebody else would come to their help. I have always questioned myself, where do they get this extraordinary hope from?

By the fourth week of Lock Down we conducted a survey to find what more could be done apart from food and other essentials and we were shocked by what we uncovered. So many were struggling with emotional issues and simply wanted to talk to someone who would listen. This prompted an immediate response from our side. We managed to get some counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists and organized camps on the roads. We were skeptical, as in India talking about mental health is seen as a taboo. We were not sure if people would come to the camps. But they didn’t just come in big numbers but they also opened up in front of the counselors. This was a big learning for us. During a time of Calamity, Disaster or pandemic we look at providing physical help but mental health is totally neglected.

Food Distribution Drive in Collaboration with Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, New Delhi:

As estimated the issues have escalated to a new hight. The number of people getting affected is growing rapidly at one hand and on the other hand hunger and unemployment is growing in a rapid pace. Migrant labours are not having jobs and due to this millions of them are not able to go back to their home town. They are forced to live in miser conditions of unauthorized slums. With no work to do these people are going hungry.

Looking at the situation NCF decided once again that we can't stop yet. People still need our support. So we started organizing ourselves and raised some money by approaching our generous collaborators. Once we had raised some money we approached the Gurudwara Bangla Sahib who have agreed to feed 1500 migrant labours per day for 1 month.

Problem Statement (Second Wave - 2021)

India in the month of April 2021l announced that a new variant of the corona virus had been detected from samples collected from different states. The second wave began in April 2021 was much larger than the first, with shortages of vaccines, hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and other medicines in parts of the country. By late April, India led the world in new and active cases. On 30 April 2021, it became the first country to report over 400,000 new cases in a 24-hour period. The second wave placed a major strain on the healthcare system, including an ongoing shortage of liquid medical oxygen due to unanticipated demand, delays in transport, and a lack of cryogenic tankers. Many Indian cities are reporting a chronic shortage of hospital beds. It's also evident in the desperate cries for help on social media platforms. Disturbing reports of people dying without getting timely treatment are coming from all over the country.

India's Covid-19 crisis has been most acute in the capital, New Delhi, among other cities, but in rural areas - home to nearly 70 per cent of India's 1.3 billion people - limited public healthcare is posing particular challenges, There are roughly 3.2 government hospital beds per 10,000 people in rural areas. Even in non-pandemic times, this means that the lives of India’s rural residents are typically shorter by four to five years, on average, compared to their urban counterparts. Ill-equipped hospitals, staff shortages and long journeys to dedicated Covid-19 wards are making it harder for village patients to access treatment as a second wave pushed India's total corona virus cases to more than 20 million.

NCF's Response during 2nd Wave

(Mission Oxygen)

When the Covid-19 crisis initially started, we noticed that Rural India was not getting attention at all. NCF with Team Licypriya a young environmental activist, decided to focus on solving problems of rural covid-19 patients and keeping them on top of our priority list.

There is a severe shortage of medical-grade oxygen across hospitals in India. Oxygen concentrators are being widely seen as low-cost, alternative devices to oxygen cylinders, especially in villages. One reason: while cylinders contain a finite amount of oxygen supply, a concentrator can recycle oxygen from the air and deliver it to the patient. Till date we have managed to get 78 oxygen concentrators that have saved around 70 lives till now from different states all across India. The number may sound small but each life saved includes the entire family that comes out of the trauma.

The oxygen concentrators are provided to people who can’t afford to purchase them and belong to the underprivileged class of the society. We are running a 24*7 SOS service where the needy can call in and provide the required documents. Once the documents are received and verified the concentrators are reached to the doorsteps of the patient.