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.
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.
Chikmoon Bibi of Shibpur Village in West Bengal used to roll beedis along with her daughter and daughter in-law to support her family of six.
In October 2018, SEWA Delhi organized a ‘My Fair Home Campaign’- in New Ashok Nagar, Delhi; a place that is home to approximately 3000 women domestic workers.
The concerns arising through the lockdown are endless; displacement, hunger, lack of shelter and distress with employment being the most paramount. With everyone held up indoors, there has been a significant rise of domestic violence cases reported across the country. One of SEWA’s community members, Manju Ben reported the same in one of the meetings. She was being abused by her husband and sister-in-law.
A resident of Samaspur village in Uttarakhand, Sheelaben is one of 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.
