Prateek Tanmay
4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 22, 2026 12:38 AM IST
Written by Reva Thakkar & Anusree K C
On Tuesday afternoon, as the number of protesters in front of the re-erected stage at Jantar Mantar steadily swelled, a group of men were hard at work, scooping out mud from a clogged drain with their bare hands.
One of them, Suhail Khan, said he had been coming to Jantar Mantar every day since activist Sonam Wangchuk was taken away by police on July 18. “It is our responsibility to keep a place clean, whether it is our home, a mandir, a masjid, a gurdwara, or any other place in our country. Wherever we stay, eat, or protest, we will keep it clean,” Suhail said.
With Suhail was Pramod Pal, who said he had come from Faridabad because it was important to keep the protest area clean. “If we are not here today, the [hygiene] situation may be worse tomorrow,” he said. There is a more personal reason too, Pramod said: “I am here for my daughter… She too may want to become a doctor one day.”
Suhail and Pramod are among the many volunteers at Jantar Mantar, working silently to keep the protest site clean and functional as the tide of protesters ebbs and flows through the day and night.
Some of the volunteers have registered with student organisations; others have simply turned up to help. (Express Photo)
Some of the volunteers have registered with student organisations; others have simply turned up to help.
“Mera naam Hindustani hai,” said a man who was walking around, collecting garbage in a large bag. He had been at Jantar Mantar since morning, he said — moving with his bag from the stage to a dumping spot created by the volunteers at the far end of the protest area, near the police barricades and a water truck. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) held its first protest at the site on June 6, and Tuesday was his 32nd day volunteering, he said.
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“What is the definition of a volunteer? Everyone is doing seva here,” the man said. “Some people are fanning others, some are getting water, and some doctors are helping with medical aid for those who need them. Everyone is here to help,” he said.
Among the doctors is Dr M K Bundwal who sat behind a wooden table stacked with medicines, boxes of oral rehydration solution (ORS), ointments, and bandages in a makeshift clinic under a yellow plastic sheet. Along with a team of around 10 volunteers, he has been attending to anyone who needs medical help at the protest site, including the occasional policeman.
“In the beginning, people were coming with complaints of headaches, nausea, and dehydration. Yesterday (when the march to Parliament turned into violent daylong protests), there were a lot of people with head and leg injuries. We needed an ambulance for two people,” Dr Bundwal said.
Another doctor, who said his name was Suresh Gavai and he had come to Delhi from Kalyan in Thane district, said: “Yesterday, they (the police) broke our set-up, and we had to rebuild it. We have no electricity here now.”
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Dr Gavai said he had left his two children back at home, and they were attending the protests that were being organised in Maharashtra.
