Grass-Roots Philanthropists: Promoting Solidarity With The Covid-19 Pandemic-Hit People

“To remit means to give back what we owe” (Investopedia). Remittance does not depend on only transfer of funds; it has got various dimensions in it that includes political and social remittances (Luin Goldring 2002). As of now we are grappling with the second wave of COVID-19 with the sudden surge in infected cases crossing 3.15 lakh and with fatality rate crossing 2,000 on daily basis (Hindu 2021-04-22). We are already scared of another stringent lockdown which will really devastate the revived economy of the country (Mint 2021-04-16). While analysing the brunt of COVID-19, we are once again reminded of harsh curfew in entire India. More than the people at quarantine centres and the patients in the hospitals it is the stranded people who faced thread to their livelihood due to curfew in transport (NDTV News updated May 28, 2020). The initiatives from the government sector like ‘Tika Utsav’ which bases on Test-Track-Treat (the Hindu 11.04.2021), private sectors and big philanthropists came forward with their initiatives to be in commonality with the pandemic-hit people. But it is quiet astounding to notice people from ordinary walks of life caming forward with initiatives of promoting solidarity with the fellow human being with their minimum contributions comprising of monetary and non-monetary, rightly defined as social remittance by Peggy levitt (1998). This is a small article that covers those initiatives by people who are of ordinary entrepreneurship during COVID19 first wave. This is an analytical paper on content analysis, exploring multi-dimensional aspects of philanthropy investigating secondary data collected from the Hindu paper from May 2020 – April 2021. The objective of the study is the rationale behind their acts of helping initiative, exploring the fitting dimensions of philanthropy in their approach. Out of fifteen cases only one person has involved in each Community, Corporate and Issue-based Philanthropy. It is observed that two persons have integrated themselves with each vertical, horizontal, education philanthropy and philanthropy through social remittance. A majority of four people out of fifteen are interested in collective philanthropy or collective giving. It is obvious that combined partnership is the trend in the grass-roots philanthropy. There is more transparency and accountability in collective philanthropy with its realization. One more thing that is interestingly looked at is philanthropy with social remittance. These people live in hand-to-mouth existence; still they extended human solidarity with the battered ones through skills and knowledge.