The second wave of Covid 19, despite creating awidespread havoc, also brought stories of magnanimity. Some of these concerned All India Service officers who went out of their way in providing help to the distressed. Among such is a young 2017 batch IRS officer, Shashank Shekhar Singh, who not only helped students with food and medicine but also provided them with study material for competitive exams in such unprecedented times.
And the beneficiaries included students from all across India.
The officer, who is currently posted as the assistant commissioner for Meerut-Ghaziabad region in Uttar Pradesh, has personally provided books to more than 700 students and helped over 1,000 students and their families with food and medicine.
HOW IT STARTED
In an exclusive interview with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Shashank said “During the month of April when the second wave was at its peak, many emergency calls regarding help were coming from various parts of the country. However, nothing concrete was being done for a specific group of people which includes mostly the student’s community. I thought of helping such people who are in need of books for preparation, or are living in PGs, hostels and away from their family and are in dire need of food or medicine.”
“So, it started with a post on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram, where we gave out a message promising to provide help to students during these testing times. Within the first two or three days we got messages of more than 700 students reaching out to us for different kinds of help. Some of them even arranged my personal number and called me for help,” he added.
As soon as the messages started coming on different platforms, they started zeroing on the urgent or SOS messages and tried providing help to such people on priority basis. Help for food and medicine was kept on priority and the requests for books and other study material were seen subsequently.
TAKING HELP FROM BATCHMATES
Mr. Shashank ideated this noble step towards helping students but he was not alone in this. He also took help from a lot of his batch-mates from the civil services community and tried connecting the needy with the officers in those designated areas.
Some of them are Ramesh Pandey (IFS, Director Delhi Zoo), IRS officers like Shailesh Jain, Chetan Sharma, Kumar Sambhav, Harikesh Singh,Pranav Kanitkar, Nivrutti Avhad, Aditya Raje Pawar, Anand Sharma (IAS), Deepak Yadav, Umesh Yadav etc.
Mr. Shashank said, “The help for food and medicine was provided on the same day whereas, books were sent to the student’s address in a week’s time. More than 700 students received the required books and over 1,000 students and their families received food and medicine.”
As help was being provided to people who were actually in need, a story came out in the media about a girl from the Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh. Mr. Shashank got to know about the girl from the media as she was unable to take admission into the tenth standard because of the unavailability of funds, as her father also lost his job during the pandemic. Mr. Shashank said, “We proactively contacted the particular reporter and came in contact of the distressed girl. I spoke to the District Education Inspector and paid the required fees. Now she will be joining the school from 1 July this year.”
STUDENTS SAY THANK YOU
We at Indian Masterminds also spoke with a couple of such students who were provided help under this initiative.
Poonam, a UPSC aspirant residing in district Gurgaon, Haryana, was going through a tough time due to the ongoing Covid Pandemic. She said, “Our family was having financial issues and I was in need of several books as I am preparing for the UPSC exam. I recently joined Twitter and saw a pinned tweet of Shashank Shekhar sir in which he was offering help to students like us. As I had seen many videos of the officer in the past, I quickly replied to the tweet with the hope that he would also help me. He replied to my message and asked for the book’s requirements. I told him and received an amount through which I purchased the book online.”
Another student named Simran, who is pursuing her second year in BA Honors and Political Science, spoke with Indian Masterminds and said, “As many people have lost their jobs during this pandemic, I was having financial issues at home due to which I was not able to concentrate in my studies. I also did not have enough study material through which I could have studies. Therefore, when I saw Shashank sir is extending a helping a hand to students preparing for competitive exams, I also replied him on Twitter for book requirement. He replied and asked for some details. I received two books within three days and I am very grateful for that.”
Just like this, there are hundreds of students who are grateful for the noble act of Mr. Shashank Shekhar and would never forget it in their lifetime.
