Suddenly, as if woken up from slumber, the authorities all over the world began screaming ‘Covid warriors be recognised and felicitated'. Most decision makers and media guys chose only doctors, police and sanitation workers. Without any doubt, the characters chosen have been performing a tough job to keep the virus at bay. But then, perhaps except the sanitation workers, the other so-called warriors are fairly compensated with hefty salaries and wages.
The really critical contributors that receive no mention at all are the essential workers comprising tradesmen keeping electricity and water flowing to households and public establishments.
These ignored guys are paid very poorly. An electrician expected to climb up a pole to put cables connected to supply lines in harshest sun and rains gets a contractual, paltry salary of only Rs 8,000 a month from an inconsiderate third party corporate service provider. No one seems to realise that without electricity or water, no doctor or policeman can be a noteworthy warrior.
More disturbingly, authorities, decision makers and resultantly the masses have completely lost sight of the lionhearted philanthropist community, without whose support much warrior activities would never have been possible in the first place. Forbes has identified 77 big-hearted donors across the world. India’s Azim Premji, founder of the Wipro empire, is on record the third biggest donor after only Twitter chief Jack Dorsey and Microsoft owners Bill and Melinda Gates.
The big guy of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has displayed a smaller heart than Premji's in donating to a common public cause. India's superrich Mukesh Ambani trails far behind Azim Premji whose foundation has donated a total of Rs 1,000 crore. His premier outfit Wipro has donated R 100 crore and the ‘Wipro Enterprises' has committed an aid of Rs 25 crore.
Movie billionaires including Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and more have done their bit but not in proportion to their colossal earnings. Akshay Kumar is the only greatest Good Samaritan from the movie world who has been donating at all times of crises for the poor and the needy all out of proportions. He has given away Rs 25 crore to the Covid fund and has pledged for an astronomical Rs 250 crore more.
A much lesser known figure Bhushan Kumar of T-Series has donated Rs 11 crore. Vicky Kaushal has donated Rs 1 crore despite earning much less than many biggies. Another small timer Varun Dhawan has paid up 55 lakhs.
Sonu Sood, who earns so much the less, is now a household ‘Messiah name' for having spent his personal money to send back home hundreds of stranded migrant women workers from far-off places by bus and plane along with food, stopover arrangements.
The filthy rich cricket heroes are by and large a very stingy lot except a handful few. Billionaire Sachin Tendulkar dished out only a mere 50 lakh. But Rohit Sharma earning way less than Tendulkar donated Rs 80 lakh. The worst among the cricket class on record is MS Dhoni, who coughed out an invisible sum of one lakh, less than many street beggars have donated for public causes. Interestingly, the little teenage shooting sensation Manu Bhaker, who hardly makes any money, has donated 1 lakh rupees to the Haryana Government. Significantly, the donations are not only spent on food or shelter for the poor, the funds are also spent on medical and scientific research to find out vaccines and drugs to cure the human race.
Azim Premji, the pride of India, was never considered for the Bharat Ratna, which he deserves like a baby does its mother’s milk. But Tendulkar was given the ‘Ratna' out of turn and by modifying the selection norms. It’s high time a special award was instituted for the most beggarly donors. That would at least keep self-centric, cash-crazy mean creatures away from offending the human race. Even the modestly-earning Bengali designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee has pledged Rs 1 crore to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund apart from Rs 50 lakh to the West Bengal Chief Minster’s Relief Fund.
The usual donors including Tatas, Adanis, Jindals, L&T, Mahindra and TVS corporate entities have all donated generously. Several FMCG companies such as ITC, HUL, RB, and Godrej have also pledged material and monetary aid to help the Government. The ITC chairman has set up a Rs 150-crore Covid-19 contingency fund. Kotak Mahindra Bank and its MD Uday Kotak have announced a Rs 60-crore donation.
President Ram Nath Kovind has donated a month's salary.
The silently-philanthropic Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has duly inspired his political colleagues to donate with a big heart. Most of them have done so from their least-deserved salary. Some of the foolish among the elected representatives have declared astronomical sums of money from their LAD funds as personal donations.
LAD funds are public money over which politicians have no personal right. Anubhav Mohanty, a street-adored movie actor with a ‘Naveen-earned MP seat', seemingly suggested trickily that he has donated one and a half crore rupees from personal coffers. Hopefully, he will be pulled up soon for the bizarre bluff which embarrasses his political party no end.
Lastly, the publicly-funded NGO founders are mostly stealing hefty salaries, which is also unethical and criminal. It is as yet not known how many such loudmouth NGO leaders have ever donated a full-month robbed salary during national or regional crises including natural disasters or pandemics. These guys appear glaringly on TV screens to make bitter comments on all state efforts but they never insist on private donations only because they never make any.