"Glad He Got The Help He Needed": Sonu Sood On NDTV's 'Save Abhijot' Campaign

An eight-year-old boy with a kidney disorder in flood-hit Punjab will get all the medical aid that he needs after an NDTV campaign. Abhijot Singh suffers from a disorder called Nephronic Syndrome and needs to go to the PGIMER hospital in Chandigarh approximately every two months for treatment. His village - Talwandi Rai Dadu in the Ajnala block of Amritsar district - is cut off because of the floods, and the family has lost their only source of income as their farm has been submerged and the crops have been damaged.

But after NDTV highlighted his plight, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Bollywood actor Sonu Sood, who is known for his philanthropy, have assured Abhijot's family of all help. The boy has now been shifted to the Ajnala base hospital, where doctors from AIIMS Delhi will be examining him. He will soon be taken to PGI Chandigarh for advanced care.

"I am glad that Abhijot will get the medical help he needs. I am flying to Punjab tomorrow. I will be visiting his family also," Sonu Sood told NDTV, adding, " I want to reach out to as many people as I can and make sure that they get back to their livelihoods".

"There will be many Abhijots in many villages. So we need to identify those in need of assistance," said the actor.

He also highlighted the importance of personal touch while helping someone in need.

"It's important to have that personal touch. When you reach out to a family and you meet them, then you get to know the real problem... So when you reach out to these villages and meet 100 families, you might be able to change the lives of only 20 people, but the rest of the 80 will also have some hope, as they will know that someone came there in their difficult times. It's important to hold their hand and tell them that no matter what, we will make it happen," said Mr Sood.

His sister and social activist Malvika Sood, who has been on the ground to help those hit by the floods, also spoke about the strategy she adopts so that people get what they actually need in these difficult times.

"The situation in Punjab is really bad. There are many villages where the water level of the road is 10 to 15 metres high. They need a boat to go from one place to another. Yesterday, I went to this village and it took me 1.5 hours to reach this village. The whole village was inundated. It took me the whole day to give them the things they needed," she said.

"But before visiting any village, we make sure to make a list of families in the village. So, we call the sarpanch and make these lists and then hand over the things that they need to them," she added.

She also listed out things that people actually need on the ground: "People need medical aid and instant food. A doctor should be there. Yesterday, I went to a village, where there was a 25-year-old woman who was bitten by a snake. After 2 hours, she died. It took the family hours to reach the hospital as there were no boats. The lives of the people are at a standstill because of the water".

The death count due to floods in Punjab has gone up to 46, while crops on 1.75 lakh hectares of land have been damaged in the deluge.

Punjab is facing one of its worst floods in decades. The floods are a result of swollen rivers, such as the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi, along with seasonal rivulets, following heavy rainfall in their catchment areas in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.