Credit: Special Arrangement
A year-old NGO in Bengaluru is gaining in popularity for helping out citizens in situations, big and small. These include filing FIRs, finding missing persons and pets, reporting cybercrimes, organising public campaigns, and arranging blood donors and mechanics – for free.
The NGO is called Broseph Foundation, and it has 10,000 volunteers across Bengaluru. They have a smaller base in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Pune as well.
Its founder Dushyant Dubey says they may not be successful in resolving all problems, but their main aim is to assist people and offer hope that they are “not alone and helpless”.
The 33-year-old quit his marketing career last year to become a full-time social worker. He had already been volunteering for causes like tribal welfare and education and was also involved in Covid-19 relief work. His friends used to teasingly call him St Broseph, an Internet slang for a brother one can always turn to.
A Reddit post inspired this NGO. He shared, “Three years ago, I wrote on a Reddit group that if anybody needed any help in Bengaluru, they could reach out to me. I was flooded with messages. People complained of landlord issues, phone snatching, and criminal intimidation. Women faced stalking and also threats of their photos being leaked online. Others had water and power issues.”
Dubey looked sleepy when Metrolife visited his office in Indiranagar on Wednesday. He had stayed up until 2.30 am to meet a woman who had allegedly faced sexual assault. “She wanted to know how to take the complaint forward. We try to attend cases 24/7,” he said.
Janhavi Desai testified to the round-the-clock operation. Last year, she had “called Broseph at 2 am” to track down a person who she feared was suicidal. “He contacted the police and the guy was found,” she recalled. Today, Janhavi has quit her job at a think-tank and oversees cases related to mental health and animal rescue here.
Many volunteers are people whom Dubey’s “army” had helped out at some point. Today, they are creating databases of ambulances, local police stations and BBMP offices, and affordable mental health services. They accompany people to police stations, government offices, and courts.
Earlier, when a case came up, Dubey’s team would tap into their contacts in NGOs, citizen groups, law enforcement and civic offices, and personal and professional networks to find help. “Now, we have figured out the official process,” he said.
Dubey is also reading law books to assist victims better. He explains, “This January, a gay person was tortured when he went on a ‘date’ in Tavarekere. The police had only filed a case for assault and criminal intimidation. When he approached me, I realised he had also been robbed, wrongfully confined, and subjected to humiliation. We rewrote his complaint and submitted it to the police. They added a few new charges. The accused was apprehended,” he said.
Towards the end of our interview, a woman from HSR Layout called him, seeking help to restore her social media account that had been hacked.
Details on broseph.in