Jain community group in Rajkot prepares over 30,000 chapatis, serves needy amid lockdown

To ensure that nobody goes to sleep with an empty stomach amid coronavirus lockdown, Rajkot's Arham Yuva Seva Group (AYSG) is providing food to the needy here, by preparing over 30,000 chapatis each day which are further sent to other community kitchens as well.

The people of AYSG were seen taking appropriate preventive measures while preparing the food like wearing gloves, masks and maintaining social distancing.

Speaking to ANI, Alpesh Modi, one of the volunteers said, "We have served more than four lakh rotis till now. We will keep doing this work until the lockdown continues."

With the inspiration of Gurudev Namramuni Maharaj of Jain community, this initiative has been started across India, the volunteers here said.

Chapatis are being cooked with the help of machines and around 4,000 chapatis are made from one machine.

"We are making over 36,000 rotis with the help of four machines each day and we are supplying them to several other organisations. We pack the rotis in a very hygienic manner," one of the volunteers said.

Since the lockdown has been enforced across the nation, around 100 groups are being served with food each day in Rajkot by this community.

Two more COVID-19 positive cases were reported in Surat, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 146, said Jayanti Ravi, Principal Secretary, Health, on Monday. Of these 146 cases, 87 cases are of local transmission.

According to the Union Health Ministry, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in India has reached 4,421. While 114 people have died, 325 patients have been cured.