Relief work is no adventure

It is heartening to find that hundreds and thousands of people, especially younger ones, have joined their hands to mobilise relief materials for the flood-affected people in the country's south-eastern part. People enthusiastically donate money, clothes, dry foods, bottled water, water purification tablets and other drugs, candles and lighters, and other necessary materials. Students of schools, colleges, and universities collect money and materials from different households. They also work days and nights to pack the materials for distribution. Various voluntary organisations are rushing relief materials to the affected areas. Religious institutions also lend their hands.
So, there is a wave of social cohesion that was otherwise largely absent in the last decade, mainly due to the oppressive attitude of the Hasina government. Social solidarity is necessary to develop a country in an inclusive manner. In Bangladesh, social cooperation and solidarity were not always strong for various reasons. Nevertheless, there was a long tradition of extending social cooperation during any crisis, irrespective of religion and political identity.
Unfortunately, the Awami League (AL) regime in the last one and a half decades systematically distorted the spirit of social cooperation and undermined social solidarity. The AL and its affiliated organisations felt threatened by any social gathering and so foiled those with the use of verbal and physical attacks. Over the decade, there have been a series of incidents, such as attacks and foiling the social and even family gatherings of those who were affiliated with other political parties, especially the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Leaders and activists of the AL, along with Jubo League and Bangladesh Chattra League (BCL), attacked various social gatherings on the occasion of wedding ceremonies, birthdays, death anniversaries, and even funeral prayers. The most common scene was a BCL attack on any student gathering in different public universities and colleges nationwide.
The ultimate result was the breakdown of social cooperation as people did not feel safe to gather for any social cause. It became almost impossible to mobilise any social initiative without involving the AL leaders and activists in the locality. Except for some registered voluntary organisations, there was no way to mobilise social work. Even the organisations have to get permission from law enforcement agencies from time to time to run their operation, with the blessing of some influential people having strong connections with the ruling party.
In the changed environment, there is now an effort to revive social cooperation,, which is, however, not an easy task. Mistrust and fear in the last decade have made people hesitant to move ahead, and it will take time for them to come around.
Again, enthusiasm for social work, such as assisting flood victims, has stoked adventurism, especially among youths. They need to correctly understand the risk in flood-affected areas and should not rush by boats with relief materials. The distribution becomes haphazard and uneven as many want to do the work, although they don't have any logistics and training to do so during the natural disaster and calamity. Instead of going directly to various spots, they should hand over their collected materials and money to any big voluntary organisation or centres such as the one at TSC of Dhaka University.
Moreover, students of any educational institution should now be barred from collecting money for flood victims from houses, shopping centres and pedestrians. Instead, those who want to volunteer need to join any voluntary organisations for the time being. Those who want to donate can easily give it to bank accounts of government and voluntary organisations or through the digital payment system. For materials like clothes and dry foods, some dedicated spots should be there under the supervision of the Red Crescent and Bangladesh Scouts, where people can donate. It is an opportunity to revive the social cooperation in a disciplined manner. The opportunity must not be lost in misguided adventurism.

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