Marathwadi women show the way how to cope with challenges posed by COVID-19

By Moin Qazi*
The COVID-19 crisis has spurred an entrepreneurial wave across the country. Rural women, particularly the farmers among them, have also latched on to this bandwagon. They are, in fact, better placed to cope with the crisis as their own uncertain lives poses every day challenges and keeps testing their resilience. They carry the greater burden of nature's cruelties and also have matching emotional abilities to come up with amazing responses.
Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) has been one of the front rank nonprofits that has been training rural women in drought prone Marathwada belt of Maharashtra to adopt climate-smart and drought-resistant farm practices. These women are now stewards of a new revolution that is resurrecting traditional farming and reviving traditional knowledge that has sustained these communities over centuries.
Many of these women saw COVID-19 as an opportunity to scale their work and use their insights to prepare their communities for the long battle ahead and steer them through the impending food crisis.
Here are a few stories from villages in Maharashtra where women are serving as beacons in the smog that envelopes the hinterland.

Cultivating nutrition gardens during the #COVID19 pandemic!

Jijabai is an Arogya Sakhi (health friend) from Madki village in Nanded district. With her training on nutrition gardening, she grows her own vegetable and fruits. With her knowledge, she empowered other women to start their own gardens. Today, these kitchen gardens are helping families cope with the hunger crisis.
Arogya Sakhis, members of self-help groups and community leaders in partnership with government front-line workers are helping vulnerable families in rural villages by creating awareness about crucial aspects like prevention, hygiene, social distancing, combating stigma and providing dry food & hygiene essentials.

Families in our village are aware about the seriousness of COVID-19, exclaims Geeta Chavan

Geeta Chavan is working in Mohtarwadi village in Osmanabad district as a Community Resource Person. She works with Gram Panchayat as a leader in her village. She has been creating awareness about pre & post safety measures about COVID-19 pandemic. Through demonstration she has increased awareness in her village.

With the support and contribution from her Mahila Shetkari Gat (Women Agriculture Group) members, she collected grains and vegetables and distributed to the neediest families. The group also collected funds from big farmers from her village and distributed to over 80 families. The members also stitch masks and distribute in their villages.

Leadership is the key to success, says Priya Khot

COVID-19 Lockdown paralyzed the life of the poor and people are finding it very difficult to survive every day. Panchincholi is such a village in Latur District, Maharashtra.
"Why people are not coming to help in time for the poor?" asks Priya Khot, a Community Resource Person of Swayam Shikshan Prayog from the village who gave her PDS allocated food items to three poor families as a sign of solidarity. Motivated by Priya’s action, 14 women from Mahila Shetkari Gat (Women Agriculture Group) came forward and mobilized food for 25 poor families and distributed. She runs a flour mill and provide free service for everyone in the village for making wheat powder on 15th and 16th of every month.
Encouraged by the response from the people, a training on mask making was provided by Bhagyashree Mahila Griha Udyog, an NGO in Nilanga. Back to the community, Priya trained six women for mask making. The group made 600 masks that is being collected by the NGO for distribution. When Panchincholi Gram Panchayat Sarpanch, Mr. Shrikant Salunkhe noticed Priya's commitment and action, he recommended neighbouring Panchayat to use her skills in community mobilization and relief effort.
"I was so shy and hesitant to go out and meet people. The changes happened in me when I started getting involved in SHG meetings and activities and become a Community Resource Person.” Priya is overwhelmed with the response and recognition she got from her community and Panchayat to do more work for the community. She has encouraged CRPs in her neighbouring villages also for working with communities and support to GP.
"I am proud of what I am doing. Panchayat and community has given me respect and I have to give it back to my community", says Priya Khot.

Selfless, in the times of crisis…

Work from Home has hit the widows in Marathwada, the most. They had lost their daily jobs and small businesses faced closure. When people do not have enough, who is to look out for widows and their children?
In neighbouring district of Solapur, twenty widows in Boramani village had no one to look to. They would lose their dignity, if they asked their neighbours.
Seeing their plight, Usha Gurav urged the members of self help group to step in. She said “wasn’t mutual aid the reason why we formed this group?“ She motivated her group to dig into their precious savings and made a plan to support twenty widows and others. In presence of their Panchayat, they procured and distributed fifty grocery kits enough to feed well over 200 people.
Unstoppable, these leaders went on to help the Panchayat to look after migrants who have travelled back bringing back nothing with them. “They are not outsiders, they are after all, our people”… says Usha about people who have returned from cities.
---
*Development expert

Comments

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Civil society groups unite to oppose Rajasthan anti-conversion Bill, urge Governor to withhold assent

By A Representative A coalition of civil society organisations, rights groups and faith-based associations has strongly condemned the passage of the “Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion Bill, 2025” in the State Assembly on September 9, calling it draconian, unconstitutional and a direct attack on the fundamental rights of minorities. The statement was released at a press conference held at Vinoba Gyan Mandir, Jaipur, where representatives of more than a dozen organisations declared that they would actively lobby against the bill and urged the Governor not to grant assent, but instead refer it to the President of India under Article 200 of the Constitution.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Supreme Court: Outsourcing jobs in public institutions cannot be used as a tool for exploitation

By Raj Kumar Sinha* Ahead of the Assembly elections in Bihar, the issue of contract workers has heated up. A few days ago in Patna, around 9,000 land survey contract workers arrived at the BJP office demanding their jobs be made permanent and for the payment of outstanding salaries. These contract workers, who are involved in land measurement, were then subjected to a police baton charge. The protest had been going on for a month at the Gardanibagh strike site in Patna, Bihar. According to the contract workers, they have been working in various government offices, including the Revenue and Land Reforms Department, for years but do not receive the same rights and benefits as permanent employees. Their main demands are "equal pay for equal work" and guaranteed service until the age of 60.

Ongoing hunger strike in Ladakh draws fresh attention during PM’s Arunachal visit

By A Representative Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Arunachal Pradesh recently for two days. During his speech, a student from Keladha Adi District displayed a banner that read, “Stop the hunger strike, give Ladakh their rights,” in support of Ladakh climate activist and innovator Sonam Wangchuk. The student was later detained by the police. The incident drew attention to the ongoing hunger strike in Ladakh.

Counterview

Search This Blog