Varanasi’s Anaj Bank now provides milk to toddlers

anaj_1 H x W:

A packet of milk was all she wanted. Nidhi with her parents emanating all happiness.

Varanasi, Mar 31: Their commitment is to overcome hunger. “No one shall sleep empty stomach in this city of Lord Shiva” is their motto. To make it a mission, they started the unique “Anaj Bank’ in 2015 on the very first day of ‘Navaratri’. And Since then, they are serving the poor, needy and destitute people of Varanasi.

They are simple, common people like us. Prof. Rajiv Shrivastava of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) conceived this model of Anaj Bank of which the UN also took cognizance as a useful model to end the problem of hunger in the world.

The Anaj Bank which functions as a regular bank without the transaction of cash. The bank has issued passbooks to its customers who are given the food grains and other passbooks to those who deposit the items. This is going on uninterrupted from the day it was launched.

anaj_1 H x W: The Anaj Bank Passbook issued in the name of Nidhi

In these difficult days of lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic, Prof Rajiv and his team members observed that infants and toddlers in the age group of 0-2 years are not getting milk. Nidhi, a year-old daughter of Jyoti and Mahender was suffering for want of milk for the last couple of days.

As soon as the Anaj Bank got its information, they rushed to her house and gave her the milk packet. When the girl saw the milk packet her face emanated all the happiness. This also underlined the necessity of projects like Anaj Bank.

When this was informed to Patron of Anaj Bank and senior RSS functionary Indresh Kumar, he immediately asked the Anaj Bank directors to open accounts of those infants and toddlers in the age group of 0-2 years. Following this Anaj Bank Chairman Prof Rajiv opened the first account in the name of Nidhi, the year-old daughter of Jyoti and Mahender of Kamachcha area of Varanasi. The Bank will now make arrangements for supplying milk and soup for them.

Nidhi with her passbook and milk bottle

Now Nidhi and many like her would not suffer from hunger as Anaj Bank has taken her responsibility, Prof Rajiv said. At the time of ‘Janata Curfew,’ the Anaj Bank is supplying 500 food packets to needy people besides 100 packets to Collector’s Shelter Home and 50 packets in Chandpur camp.

The Anaj Bank has identified 100 such children whose accounts will be opened in the bank and will be supplied milk daily by the Anaj Bank. Anaj Bank Managing Director Archana Bharatvamshi said that they have identified 200 poor families who are in need of daily food. They have been issued passbooks and they will be given food regularly, she said.

In this unique ‘Hunger-free’ movement of Vishal Bharat Sansthan (VSB), a number of famous personalities are associated, said Prof Rajiv. Prominent among them are Pradip Shrivastava for Canada, Cricketer Ishant Sharma, Sanjiv Shrivastava, Vijay Goyal, Umesh Agrahari, Vivek Shah and many others.

In this critical time of COVID-19 pandemic, the Anaj Bank kitchen is working 24 x 7 and care is taken to provide good quality food. Those who want to cooperate in this project can contact Helpline numbers 9452496740, and 9473745414.

The 24 x 7 kitchen of Anaj Bank is managed by Nazma Parveen, Najneed Ansari, Dr. Mrudula Jaiswal, Khushi, Ili, Ujala, and Shalini Bharatvamshi, Sunita Shrivastava, Punam Shrivastava, Maina Devi, Parvati, Urmila, Gita, Saroj, Prabhavati, Lilavati, Ramta Shrivastava, and Kishuna.

The food distribution is looked after by Shivendra Singh, Mohd. Azharuddin, Sanjiv Pratap, Tazim Bhararatvamshi, Roja, Tabrez, Rashid Bharatvamshi, Paurik Ranavat, Mustak Ahmed, Mohd Shafiq Mujdddi, Mohd Shahid Israel Khan from Babatpur to Chitaipur and Sarnath to Sindhaura.