"I am grateful and blessed that I can touch others’ lives,” social worker Khushroo Poacha told Parsiana on December 21, 2020, three days after being recognized by the National Commission for Minorities for his efforts in helping the marginalized during the pandemic. During the early phases of the lockdown, Poacha mobilized donors to collect "over one-and-a-half-crore rupees” for aiding the disadvantaged, he told us. Over 15,000 food kits containing staples were distributed to stranded migrants, brick kiln workers, tribals and the malnourished around Nagpur by his volunteers, loosely banded as Seva Kitchen (SK). Round the year they supply home cooked meals to carers at hospitals, and the destitute, among others (see "Coping in times of Covid,” Parsiana, June 21-July 6, 2020). The "soulpreneur,” as he was dubbed by The Times of India (ToI) of December 19, uses social media and a simple app to help alleviate hunger.
"Soulpreneur" Khushroo (above ) and Tunisha Poacha (above, r): inspired to collect for the less privileged
Coaxed to say more, Poacha stated that "when the government recognizes your work it does feel good… You feel positive… You feel good that the trust that people placed in you is recognized.” Previous social initiatives of the Nagpur-based full-time railway employee include an electronic databank of blood donors he had started in 2000. That was on the back burner while he was focusing on SK, he told the ToI. In the coming year, he "intends to leverage social media for a paradigm shift in blood donation,” stated the news report.
The award was presented by union minister for aviation Hardeep Singh Puri on December 18. The date is celebrated annually as Minorities Rights Day. Two doctors who succumbed to Covid were recognized posthumously as was a woman pilot who flew one of the Vande Bharat (evacuation) flights. Previous accolades for Poacha include felicitation by then Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in December 2015 and the Social Entrepreneur Award at the 11th World Zoroastrian Congress held in Perth in June 2018.
There is a "changemaker in the making” in the Poacha household, proud dad Khushroo stated about seven-year-old Tunisha. "She helped collect 2,500 sweaters for needy children last month,” he shared with us. When the child heard a friend of Khushroo’s explaining to him about how children were perishing in (nearby) Melghat’s cold, she enthused her father to start a campaign on his social media platform for them. "Tunisha né garibo ki madad kar ké misal khadi ki hai (she has set an example by helping the poor),” wrote the Hindi daily City Bhaskar on December 11.