Bengaluru: Company CEO takes a break to serve Covid cause

Bengaluru: The Covid-19 pandemic has created unprecedented health and economic challenges, especially for the most vulnerable sections. The good news is that many people across the globe are doing their part to help those in need. Dr Bhaskar Rajakumar, Founder & CEO, Mediknit, Global Medical Education Platform is one among them who got into volunteering after leaving the cares of his business to his partner.

Travel and office work became totally restricted because of the pandemic, hence Rajakumar finds solace in volunteering. From March to May, Bhaskar worked along with DIPR, Indian Red Cross and Department of Labour - under the leadership of Capt Manivannan and Major Pradeep Shaury Arya. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues and stay-at-home is in thing, many think it's risky to reach out to even loved ones who are sick. But Bhaskar Rajakumar has continually served as a volunteer and stayed away from his family for eight months. On his passion for voluntary service, Bhaskar Rajakumar says, "Two things I miss the most -- dinner with family and telling bedtime stories to my son. it's been eight months - staying isolated in a separate room, working 12-16 hours a day, if at all this has helped in saving a single life, I feel it is worth it. Have been part of disaster management teams world-wide, during floods, earthquakes to terror attacks, but this experience has been unique."

Bhaskar was leading the inter-state migrant coordination team - handling ration kit distributions, food, shelter, medication for migrant laborers from other States across Karnataka and migrant laborers from Karnataka in other states. Led the team of volunteers in ration and food distribution across Bengaluru and medical Quick Response Team to attend emergencies during lockdown.

Currently Bhaskar Rajakumar serves as a Nodal Officer, in-charge Centralised Hospital Bed Management System (CHBMS), which is built with the sole purpose of providing timely care to COVID positive patients in Bengaluru or seeking care in the city under government quota. The platform provides real-time picture of bed availability across various hospitals in Bengaluru, and facilitates war room teams to triage, allocate and shift deserving patients to the government quota beds.

"Every disaster, we could somehow predict the extent of damage and prepare accordingly. Most of times we had someone who was experienced in handling the situation. COVID came as a total surprise. Starting to work as a volunteer delivering food, ration and medicines for the needy and migrant laborers exposed the hard reality of life. Government did a great job, bringing together start-ups, volunteers and NGOs on a single platform - working on the same lines helped to pull through the crisis. As the number of cases increased, it was time to pull up the socks and face the demon head on - wearing a PPE and managing COVID positive at BBMP health centers for 4-6 hours, would be draining. But the satisfaction of helping the society for a better tomorrow would outweigh the troubles taken," Bhaskar Rajakumar added. Bhaskar was the man behind setting up the first mental health help line for home quarantined during the lockdown period in association with Aarogyaseva and DIPR which has supported more than 5000 individuals.