Don't let the Covid-19 crisis knock them down

Sitamma, a resident of Wadi in Karnataka's Gulbarga district, knows what it is like to feel powerless. Her husband was an alcoholic and frequently abusive. Money was always scarce, barely enough to cover their food expenses. She endured the abuse in silence but felt beaten by the poverty grind of her life. 

But then opportunity knocked in the form of a local community enterprise (set up by the Head Held High Foundation), seeking women from area villages to help make cloth bags and other products for metro markets. Once she started making money of her own, Sitamma was a changed woman. She felt empowered and finally even stood up to her husband, dragging him to the police station one day when he showed up at her workplace, demanding that she quit. That subdued him. Not only was she now financially more secure, she also began to get respect from her husband. 

But when the COVID-19 crisis hit, it became necessary to close down the community production unit. Overnight, Sitamma's source of both income and self-confidence was shuttered.

There are many others like Sitamma in fragile and vulnerable rural communities across the country; those who have just managed to stand on their feet and rethink the narratives of their lives. And who are now in real danger of being pulled back into the poverty trap unless we step in to do something. 

Our goal is to create interventions that will allow newly skilled or empowered rural youth and individuals to get through the current crisis without being sucked back into poverty. At the same time, we want to enable cut-off and remote rural communities to have access to safety information and products to prevent Covid infections.

We are looking to create models for home-based work that will accomplish both those goals. We have two such models in operation already across some of our target communities (Sitamma's community is among them and she herself is a participant in one such pilot project). One employs individuals in producing homemade sanitizers (using Neem and Tulsi leaves) that are then distributed in nearby public spaces (such as banks, post office, etc.) In the other setup, individuals can work at home to upcycle fabric remnants (from textile companies) into safety masks. Both these products are much needed at this time within rural communities where they are not easily available. And the people making them can work in the safe confines of their homes. It is socially relevant work that can be done while following much-needed social distancing norms and that also keeps an economically vulnerable person afloat during this difficult period. 

1. To prevent disadvantaged rural individuals and youth who have just begun to overcome their constraints in life from suffering a damaging setback due to the Covid-19 crisis.
2. To enable rural communities to have better access to sanitation products and practices to curb the spread of Covid-19 in them.
3. To create more home-based production units across rural communities all over the country.