Need blood, plasma? Contact these Delhi policemen who are not less than messiahs for Covid patients
Ujjawala Nayudu
New Delhi, April 22
Two policemen from Delhi Police are life savers of Delhi citizens and not less than a messiah for Covid19 patients. The policemen run a platform for blood and plasma donation where they have donated more than 800 bottles of blood and over 200 plasma since last one year.
While the country is applauding the recent work of Delhi Police in aiding the supply of oxygen at Covid hospitals, these policemen have been quietly donating plasma and blood for patients since one year.
A journey that started with blood donation in 2016 became a path breaking service for constable Ravinder Dhariwal posted at 6th battalion of armed unit of Delhi Police.
Speaking about the same, constable Ravinder said, “When we started this in 2016, it was a simple blood donation camp. However, when Covid struck, we became active plasma donors to help recovery of Covid patients. We understood that we can be a huge help to patients requiring plasma donation”.
He added, “We began donating blood and plasma and also motivated many other policemen from Delhi for it. They had their own inhibitions but with proper guidance and motivations several agreed for plasma and platelets donation”.
Dhariwal has donated blood and plasma for 62 times since ast one year. In fact, he was at the Rajiv Gandhi Hospital for blood donation when he was contacted.
His friend and constable Amit Phogat is the inspiration with Ravinder to start this endeavor.
Amit said, “Around 80 to 100 policemen from Delhi Police have joined us and come to help whenever hospitals in Delhi require blood and plasma donors".
Amit posted at Sultanpuri police station has made 73 donations of blood and plasma.
The other two policemen who aide Ravinder and Amit are head constable Shankarlal Rar posted at Narela Police and Vikas Dalal posted at DCP Traffic Central Range.
Shankarlal had even contracted Covid during the first wave however he donated plasma twice after the recovery while donated blood 38 times while Vikas made 41 donations in last one year.
The initiative started by Ravinder and Amit motivated many policemen in Delhi Police to donate regularly.
Ravinder said, “We first went to government hospital for donation however now, the hospital call us from their side. We visit whichever hospital calls us and if we cannot reach there, we contact the nearest policemen on duty at that time to immediately reach the hospital and donate blood and plasma”.
These policemen have donated blood and plasma to hospital like AIIMS,Safdarjung, Max Shalimar, ApolloJasola, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer hospital, Ambedkar hospital, Venkateshwar Hospital Dwarka, GTB hospital, RML, Fortis and Medanta Gurugram.
The contribution of this policemen is not only beyond the call of duty but also a continuous effort to help patients at the ground level.
Ravinder said, “We did not even think about going to media and talking about it. We created our social media also to spread information and give a platform to the doctors and hospital to contact us. Initially I gave out my number to hospital to contact and now this number has become a kind of a helpline where we get 200 to 300 calls every day seeking help”.
These policemen have been doing their regular duty at the police stations and partaking in ongoing investigations amd Covid lockdown implementation yet ensuring not a single call goes unattended in the day where blood donation is required.
Many policemen have helped for plasma donation initiative while we mention some names- constable Lakhan (twice), constable Kuldeep Duhan (thrice), constable Manjeet (twice), constable Om Prakash (thrice), constable Kaushal (twice) and constable Bhaskar (once).
This noble and the first initiative fondly named 'Jeevandayini', ever taken up by any policeman in Delhi needs more appreciation.
When asked about any appreciation from higher authorities on this initiative, these policemen stated that they received none so far and are doing this for real humanitarian work.
