Official apathy shatters Wall of Kindness

From being the ‘Wall of Kindness’ to the ‘Wall that Needs Kindness’, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s (GHMC) glorious charity project seems to be losing its charisma, thanks to the ignorance of both the authorities and the individuals. The ‘Wall of Kindness’- a programme that was initiated to encourage citizens in extending help to the poor - had been turned into dump yards of filth, torn clothes etc and urinating corners.

The sight of donated clothes covered with sand and solid wastes of stray dogs shows the plight of the kindness walls in Secunderabad. Lack of a shelter, elevated platform and the absence of shelves to protect the donated objects add to the woes of the donation centre.

Apart from these stumbling blocks, the major challenge for a donor is to identify or locate these centres within their areas of residence. There are no signs of these walls either on the road or no mention of it on the GHMC’s official website.

Mallesh,a resident near to one of the walls, tells us that every time it rains, the area around the Wall of Kindness is filled with stagnant and stinking sewer water, leaving the donors with no choice but to return without leaving anything for the needy ones. He says that even the workers of the GHMC simply throw away the contributions to one corner of the wall instead of discarding them into the garbage bins.

Shankariah, the Zonal Commissioner, was quick in responding to our queries regarding the cause saying, “Walls that were earlier marked as donation centres in and around Secunderabad have been inspected recently by my team and me. We have decided to relocate many of them to areas where people can easily access it and leave their donations for the underprivileged ones.” He added that works on the construction of shelters, platforms and other essential infrastructure for these walls would commence once the rains subside.

When asked about the challenges they are facing in running these walls, he said the people living within the close proximity were either not well-motivated or not thoroughly aware of the programme and that was why there was a lack of active public participation.

“In order to solve this problem, the government is trying to rope in senior citizens, youth, and local shopkeepers to bring recognition to this cause,” he said. On our suggestion, the Zonal Commissioner agreed to include this project in the GHMC website and other social media sites to help donors find their nearby Wall of Kindness.