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Langar On Wheels: Gurdwaras In Delhi Provide Food During COVID-19 Crisis

Langar On Wheels: Gurdwaras In Delhi Provide Food During COVID-19 Crisis

Highlights

  1. Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee has started 'Langar On Wheels'
  2. Gurdwaras in Delhi are providing free meals to people in need in Delhi
  3. Trucks with food from Delhi Gurdwaras go to different locations and serve

“We promise Delhi, no one would sleep empty stomach. We have flagged off 14 new vehicles today to distribute Langar to the needy and helpless in different parts of Delhi”, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, President, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee had tweeted on June 1. In a video message, Mr Sirsa had clarified that with the start of unlock 1.0, government and various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have stopped relief feeding initiated during Coronavirus lockdown. But to ensure no one goes hungry in the national capital Delhi while we fight the Coronavirus pandemic, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) initiated ‘Langar on Wheels', taking langar or community kitchen in Gurdwara beyond the walls of the religious place.

Trucks with food from Gurdwaras in Delhi go to different locations and provide meals to thousands of people for free. The food truck parks itself at a particular location and people queue up to get a meal. Showing gratitude to the Sikh community for their relentless service, a beneficiary said,

It is a good experience and a systematic way of distributing food. They have been doing sewa for many years and we believe they will continue the same sewa in the future as well.

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People in Delhi queue to get food provided by Gurdwaras in Delhi

Talking about how the Langar on Wheels is like a beacon of hope for daily wagers who have been out of work due to COVID-19 pandemic, another beneficiary said,

Daily wagers do not have regular work so they come here for the food. They are all very grateful for this langar because of which at least they are saved from hunger.

Langar on Wheels is favourable for people who cannot make it to a Gurdwara or don't have one nearby. Also, in the fight against the COVID-19, one of the tools is social distancing which is not feasible inside the Gurdwara hence Langar on Wheels serves the purpose. Talking more about the initiative, Harmeet Singh Kalka, General Secretary, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee said,

Langar on Wheels is not a concept, it has become the demand of the times. Langar is usually inside the hall of a Gurdwara but people can't get to the Gurdwara, and also want to maintain social distancing. And we have limited space for the huge numbers we want to feed. So it became our demand that the langar should reach people. These people eating langar here are helpless. It would feel wrong to call it a good response, but our Gurdwara staff is satisfied that the sewa we do is reaching those who need it. This was all possible because of the influence of sangat.

Keeping up with its tradition of serving people in need, DSGMC plans to continue Langar on Wheels.

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Langar on Wheels has been initiated by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC)

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About The Campaign

About The Campaign

India is in crisis. 

At a time when infection rates are soaring and every day brings grim news, at a time when beds, oxygen, medicine & hope seem to have all run out, all of India is feeling the same despair, the same distress, the same devastation. 

But through the darkness, there has been a ray of light.

The Sikh community has been at the forefront of relentlessly helping people during through the pandemic. If the rich living tradition of food sharing, as widely practiced in langars or community kitchens, fed millions last year, then this year the langars have provided an even more critical & basic element of life – oxygen.

In the time honoured Sikh tradition of selfless service and compassion, these Oxygen Langars sprang up almost immediately across affected cities, and in gurdwaras, where volunteers stood with oxygen cylinders for hours, helping breathless patients breathe, helping India breathe.

The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee & NDTV are coming together for a special fundraising campaign, Dil Se Sewa – Helping India Breathe.

The funds raised will aid in providing this urgently needed support, amongst many others. It will go to support the gurdwara’s immediate & critical interventions like the oxygen langars, a newly created COVID care facility and the free ambulance service. But it will also contribute to other existing efforts that all aim to strengthen India’s health system for the future  – the free dialysis hospital, the low cost MRI & CT Scan centre and the dawakhanas that provide medicines at reasonable rates.