Tisca Chopra works for transgenders, widows during COVID crisis

Bollywood actress Tisca Chopra has started an initiative with chef Vikas Khanna called #IndiaForMothers, to help support these groups deal with the crises.

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Mumbai: Actress Tisca Chopra is doing her bit to help transgenders and widows, who have been affected by the COVID pandemic.

The actress has started an initiative with chef Vikas Khanna called #IndiaForMothers, to help support these groups deal with the crises.

"When Vikas Khanna and his team approached me for this specific campaign #IndiaForMothers to support widows and transgenders in India who have lost their livelihood due to the pandemic, it was an instant yes from me. These mothers are not just nurturers, but also providers and many have been left jobless and even homeless during this pandemic," she told IANS.

"Similarly, the transgender community is also in need -- many are currently jobless and in desperate need of support," Tisca added.

The actress had started an initiative last year called At Tisca's Table, which she reinvented to help people during these troubled times.

"At Tisca's Table is a monthly table where we bring creative minds to facilitate conversations between the brightest minds, and I have been doing that since last year. We reinvented the Table for the pandemic seeing that it is what is most needed right now. It started with us sending out food to nurses and ward boys at Covid wards at Nanavati and Cooper hospitals, to show them love for their absolutely selfless work," she says.

The actress says the situation around is bad, and the needs of people are changing every day.

"The situation was terrible mid-April and stayed that way till about the 10th of May. The epicentres kept changing -- first it was Mumbai and Delhi, then Kolkata and Bangalore. Now UP is in pathetic shape. The need of the hour keeps changing -- it was oxygen and ICU beds to start with, then plasma and now it's ECMO machines and Amphotericin medicine for Black Fungus is what is needed the most right now," she says.