As India started shutting down to manage the COVID-19 crisis mid March 2020, I had a rare opportunity to become a part of a journey that will be cherished for a long time. I had a life time opportunity as one of the first few volunteers who joined the team of Capt. Manivannan IAS heading the Dept. of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) and Dept. of Labour of the Govt of Karnataka state. An exceptional leader in the Administrative Service of the Govt. of India. It was his brain child to tap into the potential of voluntary contributors like us.
The department already had a back office phone and social media support to redress citizen’s general questions in the name of Janasnehi. However, they required help to handle a flood of questions focused on the COVID-19 outbreak. Everyone being new to a pandemic of such a scale, including the Govt, the department was also responsible to answer questions from elected members, bureaucracy and the press.
The task we took up was to find order amidst chaos. With speed as the essence, we quickly came up with a structure of organizing volunteers that included Doctors, Civil Defence, Police personnel, lawyers, engineers, students into relevant teams. It involved escalated Query answering from front line support, documentation of latest official announcements for faster, easy access and communication co-ordination to quickly reach out to other Govt functions like Police, Ambulance, aviation, Ministry of Health, etc., all of it using social media and open source infrastructure that is available, zero re-inventing of wheel. With true spirit of pace over perfection, we went live with this structure on Day-2 and refined our process on the go. It started as a 24/7 service running 3 shifts of 8 hrs from Day-3 onwards (Twitter: @DIPR_COVID19)
My days start with about an hour of catching up with official facts, figures, Govt. Order and SOP changes over past 24 Hrs to gear up for some tough escalated queries to answer and SOS call requests to be directed. Having invested 8 hrs all my weekends and holidays. Re-investing weekday morning commute hours for a 6:30 am to 11 a.m. shift for 2 months while I worked from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on my ‘day’ job, it gives me immense sense of accomplishment and humility for playing a small part of a system that is touching hundreds of thousands of people directly.
I realize now, after 2 months of successful operation that the process did not have to change a lot and it even smoothly extended to an unimaginable scale of operation that was being stood up by the same officer. A force of 30,000 volunteers from across the state recruited as, now popular ‘Corona Warriors’ to help people needing support for essential supplies like food and medicines. Emergencies like child birth, medical treatment – we were even involved in co-ordination of air ambulance between states during the lock down period. A part of our core team moved to manage Corona Warriors. Our communication channels fed into each other so well to keep the wheels turning as a well oiled machine. We were able to receive and channelize the requests directly to the Corona Warriors on the ground in any part of the state.
The learning that come out of such experiences has no bounds. Some of them being empathetic and thinking from the people’s view point and making them comfortable of reaching out to us for any help and extending help and not blindly enforcing rules. Upholding the honor of the Govt. with every response that goes out from us. Living up to the faith entrusted on us to operate on behalf of the Govt.
After handling scores of stories where simple act of human changed lives of others. It is hard not to realize that humanity prevails over any disaster when people come forward with a kind heart and a will to help.
Working with such a committed, hard working and fun loving team lead by fantastic women Sreeja and Nithu Rao, my perspective of ‘Government Office’ and it’s potential remains totally changed forever.
Asides to all seriousness of the job, it came with loads of new friendship, fun memories and a permit to drive around town when not everyone was allowed 🙂
My Wave-2 experience: Covid19 Wave-2 support