One death in a sewer. A tweet with photographs of a grieving son beside the dead body of his father. An amount of Rs 46 lakh and counting raised to help the family.
This is the extraordinary story of how a tweet by a journalist had people from all walks of life come together to raise money for the family of the 27-year-old sanitation worker who died after allegedly falling in the sewer of a building which he was going to clean in Dwarka's Dabri.
Anil slipped while climbing down and the rope around his waist broke, following which he fell in the 20-feet deep sewer. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.
On Monday, 17 September, a Hindustan Times’ journalist Shiv Sunny posted two pictures of Anil’s son crying beside his lifeless body and wrote, “Family did not have money even for cremating him.”
The tweet evoked many Twitter users to join hands and come forward in helping Anil’s family even as Rahul Verma of NGO Udayan Foundation set up a bank account for donations via online crowd funding platform, Ketto.org which raised more than Rs 46 lakh at the time of writing this copy.
As the news was widely shared on social media, several people extended help to the family of the deceased as he was the only earning member of the family.
These are the stories that make Twitter feel like a better place and restore our faith in public-spirited journalism.
Speaking to ANI, Rani, wife of Anil, thanked the fundraisers for helping her out at the hour of crisis.
I would like to thank those people. All I want is to educate my three children and ensure that they lead a good life. I would be extremely grateful if you could help me out in this.Rani, Wife of Anil
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