A resident of Samaspur village in Uttarakhand, Sheelaben is one if the oldest aagewans in SEWA, and one whose energy is difficult to match. She had moved to Dehradun with her husband as a young bride, and to support their family of 7, she learned stitching, estimating her measurements as she had never received a primary education. She joined SEWA in 2012, and became an aagewan soon after.
Batulben from Sanjay Nagar Basti in Rajasthan had attended school until the 8th grade. To support her family financially, Batulben had joined SEWA for training in Lac craft and stitching, and soon became a trainer for these skills. She was also determined to complete her education and with the support of her family, was pursuing her 10th grade studies from an open school.
At the peak of the lockdowns imposed in a bid to prevent the spread of Covid-19, 80 Customer Service Points (CSPs) who are financial intermediaries of formal banks, carried out cash transactions worth INR 10Cr for 25,000 customers in villages of Uttarakhand.
The last week of June 2020 saw more and more migrant workers return to their villages from red zone cities. They were all assigned to quarantine centres for 14 days. Many wouldn’t abide, and were found roaming in their villages.
Rubinaben, a resident of Nahari, was in the 9th month of her second pregnancy. Since she was advised a C-section delivery, she had gotten a card made at Jana Hospital. By the time her delivery date arrived, Jana Hospital was a designated COVID hospital.
Many families in Purnadih, Hazaribagh cook their meals using LPG cylinders, but, during the lockdown the fund crunch made itself felt. SEWA members shared this problem about the inability to buy gas with their aagewan, Dewanti Devi.
SEWA members in Misir Gonda, Kanke, in Ranchi, are domestic workers. Most of them were unable to go to work during the lockdown. In the grips of the financial crisis, when even food essentials became hard to come by, masks were a luxury that couldn’t be afforded.
The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown had given way to an acute sense of uncertainty and vulnerability; especially amongst informal sector workers. Informal sector workers in both urban and rural communities lack job security and social security and this had worsened due to the lockdown with many workers losing their jobs.
Given widespread insecurities in water, latrine, and bathroom access a study was conducted to understand how these insecurities effect personal hygiene practices of poor women and girls in rural areas of Bihar.
The report was a cumulative approach to understand and recommend a decentralized approach to uplift and recognize the contribution and issues of women in informal labor.
