In a first for India, a blanket bank was launched on Wednesday in the national capital for poor people struggling in the cold of the Winter season. The facility, that will be free of cost, is an initiative of an organisation 'Aao Saath Chalen'. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla inaugurated it at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital on Wednesday.
The blanket bank was started especially to help the poor patients. In the cold weather, people who come from far-flung areas of the country to treat their kins in the hospital have to spend the nights in the open near the hospital. So this blanket bank has been started. Any patient and their family will be able to take these blankets and quilts in the evening from the hospital and deposit them in the morning.
Speaker Om Birla said that after witnessing the people getting distressed in the cold outside the hospital the initiative was started. He further said, "I will go out on the streets of Delhi and see for myself and if anyone is found without a blanket or quilt, it will be made available to them at night."
Soon, the people living on the road in Delhi will be provided free food from moving vehicles from 2020. In Kota, food and blanket bank was started so that no one has to sleep hungry at night.
