Many people in Maharashtra are looking for ways to help farmers who are suffering in the drought affected regions of the state. Meet the Good Samaritans.
Many people in Maharashtra are looking for ways to help farmers suffering in the drought-affected regions of the state. Vivek Vadke, a 59-year-old chemical engineer from Thane, is one of them. Vivek decided to downsize his daughter’s wedding to save money and donate it to farmers.
He donated Rs. 6 lakh to two drought-affected villages in Marathwada – Padali village in Jalna and Dapshed village in Nanded.
Picture for representation only. Source: Michael Foley/Flickr
Vivek and his wife Vasanti have always been interested in social work. They decided to cut down the expenditure on decorations and some other things, saving Rs. 6 lakh. Their daughter, Jaai, is a bio-informatics graduate who got married on December 24, 2015, after which they personally handed over the sum to the villagers.
“After visiting the villages, we realized that the best way to use the money would be to help deepen and widen the water resources in these villages to increase their capacity for the monsoon,” Vivek Vadke told The Times of India.
Biman Biswas, a senior section engineer working with Central Railways, is another Good Samaritan. He has been donating almost 40% of his salary to support at least 10 farmers and their families in Marathwada. He started by donating for two farmers and kept increasing the number once he realised that his donation could save lives.
“All my leaves were used to travel to villages in Yavatmal and Beed. The issue of farmer suicide is beyond drought, fair prices, cultivation practices are all related. It’s a matter of small donations and we can save them. More and more people should start adopting families of farmers who are in need,” he told The Times of India.
Biman will retire in six months and he plans to spend time with the farmers after that.
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