Healthcare professionals like doctors and nurses, or even the police personnel toil day in and out to save us from the coronavirus, but we rarely think about the other set of frontline heroes who are risking their lives too without any acknowledgment. We are talking about the support staff at the hospitals like the ambulance drivers, ward boys/girls, chemists and other people at the drug stores, supervisors, and cleaners who are responsible for keeping the hospital environment clean, and who come in contact with a number of people and some even have to deal with the hazardous substances from the patient’s room while cleaning. While we go all the way to thank the doctors--clap for them, send them thankyou messages--we conveniently forget the support behind that doctor. The environmental hygiene personnel are rarely even acknowledged for the important work they indulge in. 

When a few of the personnel were asked how they feel they showed severe concern for their as well as their family’s health.

“I have to drive to different locations and carry infected patients to the hospital. Though I do not come in direct contact with the patients, while cleaning the ambulance I am always anxious about what if, I happen to touch something the patient has had contact with and get infected myself? I have a 2-year-old child and I am a single father after my wife’s death. What will happen if I test positive or even worse, what if my daughter gets infected? She is so small and can’t even speak for herself,” says Mahesh Kumar, an ambulance driver, Pune.

“We come every day before the normal shift starts so that the doctors have everything set and clean. We never complain about having to clean the patient’s pans, beds, rooms. But while doing so we have minimum protective gears. I personally work with only a mask and hand gloves; what if someone touches me and I get infected? It is a risk that we willingly take, but at what cost,” says Kapil Bhura, a ward boy who works in a COVID hospital, Pune.

Every society has made it compulsory for the guards to stay put at the society posts. They can’t go home and are bestowed with the responsibility of checking every individual who enters the society gates. Apart from the fact that they are staying away from home, they have to be at their work stations irrespective of the changing weather. Sanitizing everyone who enters the gates, checking their temperature, questioning them - sometimes just doing their jobs enrages people and they let off their wrath on these guards.  

1. Understanding that these individuals are doing their jobs in stringent conditions worrying about so many aspects of their own life, is of utmost importance.
2. Showing respect for them and practising compassion or thanking them for keeping us safe is important to make them feel better about their work. 
3. Arranging safety measures for the lower-level personnel and following up with their needs and requirements for their family would be the least that would help them during the pandemic crisis. 
4. Taking care of their family’s basic needs--food, clothing, money, education--while they are off at their duties is a small step towards taking care of them.