By Fr. Felix Anthony –
Tinsukia: A bank that feeds the hungry is a novel concept that two kind men from Assam have come up with to feed the empty stomachs in the streets of Tinsukia, the last commercial town of the state.
When the world was busy feeding the hungry to celebrate the World Day of the Poor on 18 November, Mr. Amit Bhattacharjee and Mr. Prsant Goenka, two kind men from Assam have come up with a permanent solution to ensure that no one in the town goes to sleep on an empty stomach. “We are only acting as a medium between people who can and who cannot”, says Amit, who owns a small uniform shop in the town. We tell people and the school children just to bring one extra roti (Indian bread) to workplace or to school and drop it in the baskets kept at some important locations at the town and in the school campuses. We insist on dropping only fresh rotis lest the basket should become a dustbin,” he says.
On being asked why and what prompted them to think about such a selfless venture, Mr. Bhattacharjee says, “we are seeing steep rise in hatred and division among the people. The recent killing of five men from Bengal in Tinsukia district prompted so much violence across the state. We thought why not unite people under a noble cause and what can be a better way than food?”
“The Roti Bank not only units the people but also feeds hungry. We want people to know that they are not giving alms but are serving the humanity,” explains Mr. Goenka.
Spreading awareness among the denizens of Tinsukia town by the use of social media, they have managed to feed around 300 hungry mouths in the streets of the town.
“Roti Bank event is held on every Saturday of the week. It is very encouraging to see kind like-minded people coming out to support us with their rotis and we intend to make Roti Bank event bi-weekly from next month,” says Mr. Bhattacharjee.
India ranks 103 at the Global Hunger Index. Such initiative would indeed make difference and we need more such souls across the hungry to make the nation hunger free.