In the hinterland, women mount spirited offensive against pandemic
The Hindu
Pune NGO reaches out to four lakh families across 15 districts in four States
With the second wave of COVID-19 hitting the country’s rural hinterland hard, city-based NGO Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) — which helps women from rural India play a decisive role in sustainable farming — has reached out to nearly four lakh families across 15 districts in Maharashtra, Bihar, Odisha and Kerala to help stem the tide of the pandemic by rural capacity building measures. SSP activists at the gram panchayat level organised themselves into Women Task Force members (Sakhi) in over 500 villages in these four States and helped local government authorities speed up COVID-19 recovery and resilience by arranging quarantine of patients to delivering food for afflicted families. “Both waves of the pandemic saw spirited grassroots women leaders seize the initiative and aid local health authorities by reaching out to nearly four lakh families in four States. Over 3,000 women in Maharashtra and Bihar leveraged the economic lockdown to create local food economies and markets where once there were none. Defying convention they took on new roles as negotiators in mandis and organised farmers into marketing collectives to sell essentials,” Prema Gopalan, executive director, SSP, said.More Related News