India on Their Minds  – Indian-Americans Support their homeland

You can take the Indian out of India – but you can never take India out of the Indian. The recent Covid-19 crisis in their homeland has galvanized Indian immigrants and their American-born children to action. For many, their hearts are in India since so many extended family members are caught in the eye of the storm. Every day there is news of deaths close to home, of real people dying unnecessarily; there are funeral pyres burning without the farewell of friends and family members.

Indian-Americans have responded in a big way, and now there are so many of them in power positions in the civic and political life that their voices have made a big difference in the US support for India, be it in raw materials for vaccines, oxygen or devices.  Kamala Harris, with her roots in India, has spoken evocatively about the India situation.

US Reps. Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal and Raja Krishnamoorthy all appealed to the Biden Administration to India, as have several Indian-American organizations and noted civil servants.  As Khanna told the Nation: “It’s vital that the US drop barriers to vaccine production and aid Covid-ravaged India. We aren’t an island. I mean, the disease is going to continue to come back to us.”

Indeed, India seems to have a lot of friends in high places. The India Senate Caucus co-chairs Mark Warner, D-Virginia, and John Cornyn, R-Texas, along with Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging the Administration to take additional steps to help India combat the surge.

The Biden Administration has recognized the close connections and partnership with India,  (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/28/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-delivers-emergency-covid-19-assistance-for-india/) noting that “Reflecting the United States’ solidarity with India as it battles a new wave of COVID-19 cases, the United States is delivering supplies worth more than $100 million in the coming days to provide urgent relief to our partners in India.”

The US is providing oxygen support with an initial delivery of 1100 cylinders which will remain in India to be repeatedly refilled at local supply centers with more expected. According to the White House the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also locally procured oxygen cylinders and will deliver them to support hospital systems in coordination with the Government of India. Also included are oxygen concentrators, oxygen generation units, personal equipment and vaccine manufacturing supplies which will allow India to make 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine.  Therapeutics and Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) are on the list along with public health assistance and collaboration with US CDC experts.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Health Commissioner Dave A. Chokshi  announced that the City will tap into its stockpile to send COVID-19 test kits, swabs, ventilators, and pulse oximeters to India. “We should publicly share all research, technology, and techniques for producing the COVID-19 vaccines. Our city, home to thousands of Indian-born New Yorkers, and our country have a moral imperative to demonstrate global solidarity in order to overcome this devastating pandemic.”

The dire situation has galvanized NGOs and corporations, big and small, across America. Indiaspora opened ChaloGive.org giving platform with an initial $ 1 million from their private donor network. Indiaspora’s founder M.R. Rangaswami, who lost a sister to COVID, said:  “COVID has hit everyone on a personal basis. I’m treating this as a personal emergency as well as a call to action.”

Indiaspora also held a fundraiser Help India Breathe which brought together several noted names from the Indian and AAPI community, including Lilly Singh, Deepak Chopra, and Jay Sean. More than $1M was raised during the fundraiser event, with both Indiaspora and Vinod Khosla matching each dollar raised up to $1 million, effectively tripling the impact of those who gave, and collectively raising more than $3M together.

“The scale and magnitude of the situation in India is currently beyond any one person or any one group’s ability to tackle,” said Ashish Shah, Senior Director, Philanthropy and Community Engagement at Indiaspora. “We need the force of our entire Diaspora behind COVID-19 relief efforts in India so that we can make the biggest impact possible.”

Indeed, various organizations have been instrumental in rallying the troops – Pratham has procured 7000 oxygen concentrators and is coordinating with local organizations to distribute these to Indian hospitals and Covid care facilities. On May 14, directors of USA Pratham are discussing the COVID crisis in India online with Dr. Managala Narasimhan, Senior VP and Director of Critical Care Services at Northwell Health.

The American India Foundation (AIF) has dispatched oxygen concentrators to India via FED EX and Air India flights and these are being sent to various hospitals across India.  AIF has received over $8.9 million from Mastercard to help an estimated 2.5 million people gain access to healthcare. According to AIF, this is the largest gift it has received and it will be used to create portable hospitals in the areas of greatest need across the country. The organization is scoping locations for several portable hospitals with a goal of constructing 2500 such units.

Vikas Khanna, the noted chef, who earlier headed the massive FeedIndia Campaign during the first wave of Covid-19, providing rations during the quarantine, has now partnered in a creative and ambitious undertaking with the NGO Vibha and  various corporations to work in over 40 hospitals, healthcare facilities and partner organizations in India. A partnership with Texas Instruments and the Government of Karnataka has set up a 100 bed hospital in Bengaluru, and vaccination clinics are being planned.

Says Keyur Shah, Director of Vibha: “While we may all have views regarding what went wrong causing the second wave in India, we at Vibha are focusing on how to make it right. Currently, we are laser focused on this relief operation. We have raised over $700k with a goal to reach a million dollars.”

America-based NGOs which have a footprint in India are reaching out to afflicted communities in the states and cities. Many of these groups are focusing on the local communities where they already work and so are able to address their needs during this crisis.

Children’s Hope India (CHI) is a nonprofit run by women professionals in New York, dedicated to the education of underserved population. It is reaching out to hard-hit communities in Jodhpur, Pune, Delhi, Mumbai, Bhopal and Bengaluru. “The scope of our COVID relief is individualized to each community where our projects are located, as the need in each community is different,” says Dr. Dina Pahlajani, president of CHI. The CHI Relief Program has provided oxygen concentrators, medical kits and PPE equipment; it has set up makeshift hospitals in rural Pune and in a school in Bhopal, with triage stations where patients can isolate from crowded family homes and get medical treatment. CHI is also providing vaccination camps, meals and financial support to affected families while continuing education programs through remote learning.

Young Indian-Americans, many who may never have been to India and their American friends are reaching out on social media with their heart-felt small donations.  No Indian-American has been left untouched by the escalating crisis in India – social media is full of tributes and photographs of lost family members and friends. Just today morning there was a poignant personal tweet from Dr. Celine Gounder, who is on the Biden Covid 19 Advisory team: “Mourning the loss of another family member to COVID.”

“Why the World Should Worry About India” is a searing article in The Atlantic by Yasmeen Serhan who observes that the world’s largest vaccine producer is struggling to overcome its latest COVID-19 surge and that is everyone’s problem.  “India’s outbreak is an enormous tragedy for its own people, but it’s also a catastrophe for the rest of the world,” she wrote. “Ninety-two developing nations rely on India, home to the Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine maker, for the doses to protect their own populations, a supply now constrained by India’s domestic obligations.”

Indeed, before its vicious second wave of COVID-19, India was itself providing vaccines to so many countries. Barbados is one of the countries which had gratefully vaccinated their people, thanks to India’s generosity. The hope is that the world is able to respond to India’s crisis in a timely fashion and the tide can be turned, with a better outcome for the entire globe.

(This appeared in my weekly column ‘India in America’ in CNBCTV18.com)