By Debayan Mukherjee
Kolkata, May 8 (IANS): A players' forum involving former and current India footballers on Friday distributed 2,000 bottles of immunity boosting homeopathy medicine to police personnel of the Barrackpore commissionerate in a bid to help them combat the COVID-19 crisis from the forefront.
The 38-member strong group, which has the likes of current India full back Pritam Kotal, ex-India captain Arnab Mondal, Subrata Pal, Mehtab Hossain, Rahim Nabi among others came forward to start the noble cause and according to former Mohun Bagan midfielder Denson Devadas, the brainchild behind this initiative, they will go ahead with more such activities in Bengal in the days to come.
The group is called 'players for humanity' and was formed last year to play small-sided football matches during off season. Later, it joined community service and charity work and had also helped in the organisation of a charity match to help late Radhakrishnan Dhanarajan's family.
"My wife is a homeopathy doctor. So during this COVID-19 crisis, we came up with this idea of providing medicine 'Arsenicum Album' which helps boost immunity to our frontline workers," Devadas, who plays for George Telegraph in the Calcutta Football League (CFL), told IANS.
"Even in Kerala, they are following it. I heard from my wife about it that they are running the second dose for it. The state is doing it for all. Even in Delhi...so we thought of starting from police department. We approached NIH (National Institute of Homeopathy) as medical support is needed, and they were very happy to work with us. They are the suppliers of medicine," said Devadas who is born in Kannur, Kerala but lives in Newtown, Kolkata.
All 38 footballers in the group then used their sources to approach the commissioners and get the permission.
"We started with Barrackpore police station. Six-seven of us went there and distributed 2,000 bottles. One bottle, five members can use," Devadas further said.
The likes of veteran India goalkeeper Subrata, ATk's Pronay Halder and Prabir Das, Souvik Chakraborty, Lalkamal Bhowmick, Md Rafique and Devadas were there.
"We are planning to extend this to Kolkata, Bidhannagar and Howrah commissionerate," Devadas concluded.