Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh): A 14-month-old girl, Srishti in Bilaspur is suffering from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). Srishti's father who originally hails from the Palamu district of Jharkhand works at SECL Deepika in Korba district. He needs 22 crore rupees for the treatment of his daughter. It is a herculean task for the father to arrange an amount as huge as this.
As such, the family is trying to secure funds to cover the cost of Zolgensma therapy for their daughter through crowdfunding. An application is also being used to generate funds for Srishti.
Her body lacks the gene which creates the protein that keeps the muscles alive. This disease is inherited through the defective genes of either the father or the mother of the patient. To get the disease treated she needs the dose of Zolgensma injection which is manufactured by the Novartis firm located in Switzerland. The price of this injection is 16 crores apart from 6.5 crore rupees charged as the import duty. It is impossible for Shrishti’s father to arrange an amount as large as this single-handedly. Therefore, he has pinned all his hopes to crowdfunding.
READ: Hyderabad parents take to crowdfunding for son's treatment
What is crowdfunding?
⦁ Crowdfunding is a new technique to collect funds with peoples’ support.
⦁ Mediums such as web platforms and social networking come in handy to collect funds.
⦁ It is used to take care of needs such as treatment of disease, education and business.
⦁ Apart from personal needs, this is also being used for public schemes, religious purposes and public development programmes.
⦁ People are asked to donate funds through social media platforms.
⦁ In order to crowdfund, the bank account details are shared on social media platforms.
People residing in any part of the world can send money to the beneficiaries through their account.
Hoax in the name of crowdfunding
Social activist, Kunal Shukla says this medium meant for collecting funds for beneficiary work is also not spared by anti-social elements who use it to dupe people. These days there is a flood of calls and social media post that dupe people by emotionally blackmailing them. It is necessary to cross-check the background of such websites and people before you contribute so that our financial aid reaches the genuine beneficiary.
New ‘toolkit’ of mutual cooperation.
The trend of crowdfunding is on the rise in India. It has existed in foreign countries for quite some time, but it is a novel for India and not less than a boon for the poor people struggling to make their ends meet.
