CK Vineeth volunteers as call centre executive in virus hit Kannur district

The Jamshedpur FC forward is doing his bit for the community in these testing times.

Jamshedpur FC's CK Vineeth been volunteering as a call centre executive for ten days now amid the coronavirus outbreak. The forward is working in a call centre in Mangattidum panchayat, which has been setup by the Kannur district administration and the Kerala State Sports Council.

His duty mainly enables him to take down the requests for essential items by the locals and passing them on to the delivery department.

"The centre has been functional since March 28," CK Vineeth told ESPN, catching a break between calls. "When I was asked by the sports council vice-president OK Vineesh, if I'd be keen to help, I jumped right in."

The 31-year-old has already been an odd one out being a sportsperson in the country who does not shy away from speaking against the wrongdoings of society. He has always been bold when it comes to societal issues and therefore was eager to work in these difficult times.

Over the years we have seen CK Vineeth take bold steps starting from writing 'NIL' in the religion column on his son's birth certificate, protesting against the rape of two minors, supporting a certain Sreejith, who sat outside the Kerala secretariat seeking justice for his brother's custodial death. He was also one of the first to and take part in Kerala's flood relief operations a couple of years ago.

"When a crisis strikes, we can either sit back or do our part," he said, on his current volunteering stint. "My state and my district (Kannur) are affected and I just didn't want to be the person watching from the sidelines."

The Kerala government has been very active in combating the deadly pandemic, but among the 250 cases in the state, Kannur district alone has reported around 60 cases. The call centre where Vineeth is currently working has around 15 people attending to around 200 calls on an average day. The panchayat has brought grocery shops together, from where items are picked up by delivery agents and delivered to locals.

"We have five BSNL mobile numbers on which people can call. Earlier, kids would call and ask if we could bring them chocolates," says Vineeth. "Now, it's mostly the grocery essentials and a lot of requests for medicines."

In addition to working at a call centre, Vineeth also visited Kannur district hospital to distribute food packets for the patients and healthcare officials. "My father has health complications and I have a young son at home as well, so the days I visited the hospital I didn't return home," he says.

"These days after my shift, once I get back, I shower in our outhouse before entering home."

The district panchayat tries to rope in famous personalities, politicians, sportspersons to inspire people to stay indoors in these times of emergency.

"I've stayed on the longest," Vineeth laughs. "It's just a way to cheer up people by having someone whom they may have heard of or seen on TV answer their calls and introduce themselves. People are struggling for essentials, so I don't want to be picking up the phone and saying, 'You know, I'm CK Vineeth, so are you a fan?'

"For now, I'm just Vineeth and I'm here to take their orders."