Dear Supporters,

Thank you for signing my petition. I hope you and your loved ones are safe.

Watching thousands sign this petition has been the only sane thing I have seen in the past week. It gives me so much hope that our country still has people who put India first before politics.

Scientists are saying that the second wave could be a result of elections and carelessness. There are many media reports linking the covid surge to elections.

It makes me sad and angry to see helpless citizens begging for oxygen, beds and medicines while our political class is still asking for votes.

I believe that if enough people start demanding #PauseElections, it will happen.

This is why I request you to:

1. Share this petition on whatsapp, etc. Tag influencers on social media and ask them to support this.

2. I am thinking of doing a tweet-storm next week to bring EC’s attention to this. Please share your ideas, what else can be done to take this campaign forward.

Wishing you all health and safety,

Sujitha

Dear All,

Thank you very much for your support. It means so much to me to have the support of 20,000 likeminded Indians who care deeply about the state of our public health during the pandemic. 

I am feeling hopeful as I share with you that in addition to public support, this campaign #VaccineForYoungistaan has been endorsed by 4 Members of Parliament and a National Spokesperson of a major party. 

You would have received the statements of solidarity via email from Ms.Priyanka Chaturvedi, MP Rajya Sabha and deputy leader Shiv Sena and also Ms.Supriya sule, MP and member of Nationalist Congress Party, who raised the question to the Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan in Parliament about the universal vaccination. 

On Twitter, this campaign received support from Ms. Juhie Singh the Spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party, and two MPs from the Aadmi Party Dr. Sushil Kumar Gupta and Mr. Sanjay Singh.

A big thank you to all these leaders for standing up for all of us.

I have been reaching out to the media and they have shown interest in supporting the initiative.

But this is the beginning and we have to continue our battle to fight Corona virus and save our youth. COVID is spreading very fast in the second wave and hitting India hard. At this point, your continued support is very crucial. I urge you to share the message below on WhatsApp in all your circles.

The second wave of COVID is infecting India’s youth, who are the biggest contributors to the economy. However, they are not eligible for the COVID vaccines, even though health experts are strongly in favour of it. It’s time we ask the Government of India to open up vaccinations to everyone above 18 years of age.Sign and share https://www.change.org/VaccineForYoungistaan

I hope to deliver the petition to the Health Minister soon, so more signatures on this petition will help me make a stronger case for #VaccineForYoungistaan 

Warm Regards,

Rinki Sharma 

Congress MLA verbally assaults a doctor in Bhopal after death of a Covid patient who was brought in extremely critical condition. 

The doctor has resigned.

Its just the beginning of second wave and this is the respect MLAs are giving to doctor.

Why is no action taken on such MLAs under Epidemic Disease Act? 

Its so easy to blame lack of beds on the doctors. 

Till now I have posted about incidents of assault on doctors all over India. 

But today my department is the victim of assault. On death of a patient Anika, patient party physically assaulted two senior residents at Sikkim Manipal Medical College. They slapped the doctors.  We live in fear despite living in the most peaceful state of India, Sikkim.

Even during the Covid period, this is how Covid warriors are being treated.

Will doctors in India ever get justice? Can we ever treat patients without fear of assault?

I hate being a doctor. And thats the truth of every doctor in this country.

This Diwali was not a bright one for me. A week before Diwali, at least a dozen people around me tested positive. Post Diwali, the situation has worsened. Especially in Delhi, the situation has become so bad that the ruling party has been forced to take some strict measures.

However, the virus is still out there, and from the looks of it, it’s here to stay. It’s been 9 months and we are still at a stage where we struggle to find beds in hospitals in case someone tests positive. There’s still no centralised data on availability of beds for patients. If we truly aim to become digital India, now is the best time to do so.

Sign my petition and join me in asking the Central Govt to have a centralised database for crucial information for patients – availability of beds, nearest COVID hospital.

If not now, then when?

Yes, you heard it right! Finally, on November 1st, 2020; the decision in SC came to not charge Interest on Interest from loan burrowers for the moratorium period. This is a historical judgment and will help in not making huge holes in many loan borrowers’ pockets.

I wanted to share with you our journey and so as my final note I write to you all how inspiring and hard the campaign has been!

When I started the Petition on Change.org with #HaltEMIInterest I had loan burrowers who appreciated the efforts. I also had people who were skeptical & played devil’s advocate they said, ‘what I was asking is never going to happen’

I knew I was asking for a lot, but still, I couldn’t be silent. I took the route which was familiar to me and also given the Pandemic; possible. I started this online Petition and within a week almost 15000 people joined me in my ask. Today we are good 37000+ people.

After a week or so, there were PIL being filed in court. I reached out to advocate Amit Sahani was too to let him know that we too are fighting for the same cause. Unfortunately, the case was dismissed.

Shortly, Gajendra Sharma and his team of advocates came into the picture. They took the fight in court which continued for 8 long months. I was in touch with them via Email. Extending stories and highlights from the online campaign. I believe that our online campaign also helped them to showcase that the case is not affecting one person but many!

Meanwhile, moratorium time had gotten extended from 3 months to 6. This was a short victory too!

There was a lot of to and fro in court and articles that were so intimidating pointing out that our ask is going to be in vain. But every one of you and the PIL team in court did not give up on our request for support from RBI, Finance Ministry, and our PM.

And finally, on November 1st, 2020; the decision came. And it was a relief because now at least the Compound Interest will not be levied for the moratorium period. This is a historical judgement and will help in not making huge holes in our pockets as loan burrowers.

Yes, I agree what we had asked was out of the way but it was a valid ask and it paved a way for the government and RBI to rethink how they had levied relief to their customers.

I am grateful to all of you, to those who played devil’s advocate and to the brilliant team of advocates on Gajendra Sharma’s case vs UOI.
Last but not least to @change.orgindia @change.org_hindi for being the platform of Online Activism!

#victory #emimoratorium #ChangeMaker