India keeps on setting grim records in the fight against the coronavirus. And as if that were not enough, the country is repeatedly hit by natural disasters. People who are already living at subsistence level are fighting for survival. SWISSAID has responded by providing emergency aid.
Facts
Aims
The emergency aid project helps the beneficiaries to protect themselves against the coronavirus and provides them with essential goods that they can no longer obtain or buy due to the restrictions in the fight against COVID-19. Families in need are given food, seeds and masks. They are also made aware of important hygiene measures to protect themselves against infection.
This project is co-financed by the SDC program contribution.
The project is over. Read about its success here.
A rat darts through the empty streets. Where once there was colourful hustle and bustle, now there is a yawning emptiness. When a new virus left the whole world paralysed in shock this spring, the Hingalganj region of West Bengal in India was hit particularly hard. A country where over 90 percent of the 465 million workers are employed in the informal sector is particularly vulnerable to this kind of crisis. Then at the end of May, cyclone Amphan left a trail of destruction in northeast India. People are saying it was one of the worst storms in the last 20 years.
Dank Ihrer Spende können wir helfen!
Environmental disaster, economic crisis, coronavirus: for the elderly, single women, people with disabilities and migrants in particular, it is more than ever a question of life and death in India.
Emergency aid in places where SWISSAID has been working in close cooperation with local partner organisations for decades can save over 70,000 men, women and children from the worst of the impact. The focus is on protecting them from COVID-19 on the one hand, and restoring food security for those most in need on the other.
Hope dies last
“During the lockdown we had no income and the cyclone devastated everything”, reports Mallika Mistri, a young woman from Sandelerbil. Because of the lockdown, which lasted for weeks, smallholder farmers like her were unable to sell their produce at the market.
While some were starving, elsewhere the harvest was rotting. Migrant women workers – who fled back to their home villages at the beginning of the crisis – were missing from the fields. For many, emergency aid is the last hope. “The seeds we received were a great help. We survived by eating and selling the vegetables we grew from them”, Mallika Mistri says. And when you see her walking through the lush green of her garden wearing a mask and a red and yellow sari, it’s clear that the crisis is not over yet. But hope dies last.
The project is over!
The project supported the inhabitants of the Marathwada region by providing them with water and food rations. Single women and mothers received fertilizer and seeds to ensure the cultivation of their plots and thus the harvest in the coming months. SWISSAID also supplied soaps and disinfectants, as well as respiratory masks. In more detail:
Food security and water
– 1955 destitute families, a total of 5444 people in need – single women, migrant workers and the sick – received food rations containing dried vegetables, oil, tea and spices. Wheat flour and rice were supplied by the government.
– 300 elderly, sick or disabled people received two prepared meals a day.
– 1364 families in isolated villages were supplied with water twice a day. Each family received 61 liters of fresh water per day. This measure was originally intended for 800 families.
Diverse
– 600 smallholder families received seeds, natural fertilizers and tractors or oxen on loan for sowing.
– 2015 families received masks, soap and other hygiene products. 80% of the inhabitants of 106 villages (around 175,000 people) were made aware of protection measures against Covid-19 through leaflets and radio broadcasts.
– 6866 women in 106 villages were sensitized to violence prevention. 200 cases of domestic violence were identified and dealt with. In seven cases, a forced marriage was avoided.
Testimonial
“I live alone with my two daughters and my parents-in-law. My husband died in an accident and I look after the whole family on my own. I normally work in sugarcane fields during the harvest season and in other fields the rest of the year. During the lockdown, they were all closed and off-limits. Without work, my family and I found ourselves in extreme distress. Without the food rations from SWISSAID, we would probably have starved to death.” Swati Ramhari Tidke from Gaodhara village, Beed district.
