16-year-old Richa Ghosh donates Rs 1 lakh to fight Covid-19 threat

In a noble gesture, sixteen-year-old Richa Ghosh, who represented India in the Women’s T20 World Cup, has donated Rs 1 lakh to the West Bengal State Emergency Relief Fund, thus joining the bandwagon in the fight against the Coronavirus. Richa’s father Manabendra Ghosh went to the Siliguri district magistrate Sumanta Sahay’s residence to hand over the cheque. Having made her debut in the tri-series in Australia before the T20 World Cup, Richa and Shafali Verma were the two 16-year-olds who played the final which India lost to Australia by 85 runs on March 8. 

 “When everybody is fighting COVID-19 and the chief minister has appealed for a united battle against it, I thought of contributing a bit as a responsible citizen of the country. This thing was on my mind for a few days but we didn’t know the process. A couple of days back, my father got in touch with our Siliguri sub-divisional officer and yesterday he went to hand over the cheque," said Richa, as quoted by Sportstar.

Former cricketer Mithu Mukherjee, who played four Tests for India, also expressed her desire to donate Rs 25,000, according to reports. On Saturday, the BCCI pledged to donate Rs 51 crore to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund to strengthen the country’s fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

Among men, Suresh Raina (Rs 52 lakh), Sachin Tendulkar (Rs 50 lakh) and Sourav Ganguly (Rs 50 lakh) have also contributed to the cause. Pathan brothers – Irfan and Yusuf – also donated 4000 face masks to Baroda police and health department. According to the Govt. of India’s COVID-19 website, the current statistics says 867 positive cases with 87 already cured. The number of casualties currently stands at 25.