Skip to main content

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

TRENDING

Junk food push causing severe public health crisis of obesity, diabetes in India: Report

By Rajiv Shah  A new report , “The Junk Push: Rising Consumption of Ultra-processed foods in India- Policy, Politics and Reality”, public health experts, consumers groups, lawyers, youth and patient groups, has called upon the Government of India to check the soaring consumption of High Fat Sugar or Salt (HFSS) foods or ultra-processed foods (UPF), popularly called junk food.

Astonishing? Violating its own policy, Barclays 'refinanced' Adani Group's $8 billion bonds

By Rajiv Shah  A new report released by two global NGOs, BankTrack and the Toxic Bonds Network, has claimed to have come up with “a disquieting truth”: that Barclays, a financial heavyweight with a “controversial” track record, is deeply entrenched in a “disturbing” alliance with “the Indian conglomerate and coal miner Adani Group.”

From 'Naatu-Naatu' to 'Nipah-Nipah': Dancing to the tune of western pipers?

By Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD*  Some critics have commented that the ecstatic response of most Indians to the Oscar for the racy Indian song, “Naatu-Naatu” from the film, “RRR” reeks of sheer racism, insulting visuals and a colonial hangover. It was perhaps these ingredients that impressed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, one critic says.

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Avoidable Narmada floods: Modi birthday fete caused long wait for release of dam waters

Counterview Desk  Top advocacy group, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), has accused the Sardar Sarovar dam operators for once again acting in an "unaccountable" manner, bringing "avoidable floods in downstream Gujarat."  In a detailed analysis, SANDRP has said that the water level at the Golden Bridge in Bharuch approached the highest flood level on September 17, 2023, but these "could have been significantly lower and much less disastrous" both for the upstream and downstream areas of the dam, if the authorities had taken action earlier based on available actionable information.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Victim of 'hazardous' jobs, Delhi sanitary workers get two thirds of minimum wages

By Sanjeev Kumar*  Recently, the Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) organized a Training of Trainers (ToT) Workshop for sewer workers and waste pickers from all across Delhi NCR. The workshop focused on bringing sanitation workers from different parts of Delhi to train them for organization building and to discuss their issues of minimum wage, contractual labour, regular jobs and social security.

Jharkhand: Attempt to create red scare for 'brutal crackdown', increase loot of resources

Counterview Desk  The civil rights group Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization in a statement on plans to crackdown on “64 democratic progressive organisations” in Jharkhand under the pretext of the need to investigate their Maoist link, has alleged that this an attempt to suppress dissent against corporate loot and create an authoritarian state.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.