By Satyabrata Acharyya,
COVID-19, in the last two years has taken the world by storm. Its impact has been felt across livelihoods, businesses, industries and people across demographics and geographies. In India, the impact has been felt in the urban cities as well as rural India. While a lot has been discussed about the urban impact, effect on jobs, businesses, and mental health of people; not much has been talked about the impact in rural India.
Physical, emotional, and mental well-being of people have been impacted in the rural pockets of the country; the gender effects have been equally prominent. Marginalized communities, especially women, have been deeply affected by COVID-19. Their most basic entitlements such as income from agriculture daily wages, MGNREGA wages, access to drinking water and electricity had been impacted in the last two years. Health and sanitation were adversely impacted too- the lockdown led to a gap in the services of community health centres; there was severe shortfall of primary and secondary infrastructure in rural areas, which caused strain on the tertiary hospitals in urban areas and overwhelmed the facilities.
However, many social sector organizations worked relentlessly and collaboratively to improve the livelihood of this marginalized section in the country, and reboot the rural economy, during COVID-19. Multiple training modules were developed to capacitate women and help protect and uplift their financial and social status during the trying times. Central and state governments, CSOs and NGOs developed programs to help women earn back livelihood while the country was still undergoing COVID-19 lockdown.
Multiple initiatives were aimed at improving the food security of marginal farmers, especially women, through the use of improved agronomic practices. Natural resource-based assets were created which helped them get wages from DAY-NRLM; this also helped in addressing the remittance gap issues faced by migrant workers. Vegetable cultivation with irrigation facilities were encouraged, multiple marketing tools were adopted; promotion of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) was also encouraged, so that individual small farmers could get collectivized and reach out to markets away from their villages and get better prices for their produce.
Rural India adapted itself to the technology advancements. Audio-visual tools were extensively used to impart skill amongst women to help them engage in livelihood options of their choice. Knowledge was imparted around cultivation methods and crop advisory, helping them grow multiple crops, and practice regenerative agriculture. Vegetable production was focused for cash income. Women who lost their primary source of income due to COVID-19, started earning better by better use of land for crop cultivation.
Community radio and Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) were used for creating awareness on the adoption of sustainable foods on one hand; and for conducting in-depth phone interviews to evaluate COVID-19’s impact of livelihood, on the other.
With the COVID-19 outbreak, CSOs engaged with the diverse sections of the rural community, including the elderly, pregnant and lactating mothers, migrant workers, and the vulnerable households such as the differently abled and single women. Women were especially supported to earn a living during the last two waves of the lockdown. In the process, they not only supported themselves but many of them turned out to be the sole earning member, supporting the entire family. The triumvirate of private organizations, government and CSOs came together to support rural women. However, the true champions of the times were the marginalised, rural women themselves who were the true manifestation of Nari Shakti.
(The author is Integrator at Pradan. Views expressed are personal and do not reflect the official position or policy of the Financial Express Online.)
