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Accepted Paper:
How NGOs during the COVID-19 pandemic became platforms for equitable distribution of services and support: Case study of women run, community owned, SHGs in rural India
Swati Saxena
(Cancer Awareness, Prevention, and Early Detection (CAPED))
Paper short abstract:
COVID-19 pandemic in India severely impacted the scope and efficiency of the government institutions for providing social safety nets for poor. I use the case study of an NGO India to demonstrate how SHGs by rural women were able to demonstrate resilience in this time of crisis and adapt quickly.
Paper long abstract:
Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana (RGMVP) organises rural women in Uttar Pradesh, India, into Self Help Groups for initiating financial inclusion using the platform for layering health and livelihood interventions. COVID-19 impacted the activities and scope of SHGs, the larger context of its functions, and brought up operational challenges with curbs in external donor funding. However even in limited capacity, SHG's health workers functioned as resource persons for information on hygiene, infectious disease prevention, testing, and provision of drugs and consumables. They were also semi-formal financial institutions when loss of jobs and income was acute. The loans facilitated were used for investments into farms and enterprises, or basic necessities and prevented debt traps and poverty. Finally, the SHGs function as structures where women (from different castes and religions) came together on a common platform to form bonds of solidarity and connect on shared concerns. This is transformative in an otherwise feudal and patriarchal society. Formal institutions and state programmes related to health, education, and law and order are dismal in rural areas and their services were further restricted during the pandemic. SHGs emerged as excellent informal institutions of community networks for provision of continuum of care related to health, education, and finance. SHGs proved to be resilient networks for providing moral and emotional support during extremely difficult and unprecedented times. In rural India, where community networks are the norm, informal institutions have great potential to emerge as excellent social safety nets and ensure equitable response for the most vulnerable.
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Accepted Paper:
Paper short abstract:
Paper long abstract:
Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana (RGMVP) organises rural women in Uttar Pradesh, India, into Self Help Groups for initiating financial inclusion using the platform for layering health and livelihood interventions. COVID-19 impacted the activities and scope of SHGs, the larger context of its functions, and brought up operational challenges with curbs in external donor funding. However even in limited capacity, SHG's health workers functioned as resource persons for information on hygiene, infectious disease prevention, testing, and provision of drugs and consumables. They were also semi-formal financial institutions when loss of jobs and income was acute. The loans facilitated were used for investments into farms and enterprises, or basic necessities and prevented debt traps and poverty. Finally, the SHGs function as structures where women (from different castes and religions) came together on a common platform to form bonds of solidarity and connect on shared concerns. This is transformative in an otherwise feudal and patriarchal society. Formal institutions and state programmes related to health, education, and law and order are dismal in rural areas and their services were further restricted during the pandemic. SHGs emerged as excellent informal institutions of community networks for provision of continuum of care related to health, education, and finance. SHGs proved to be resilient networks for providing moral and emotional support during extremely difficult and unprecedented times. In rural India, where community networks are the norm, informal institutions have great potential to emerge as excellent social safety nets and ensure equitable response for the most vulnerable.
Challenges to Justice and Equity in a post-Pandemic Context: civil society responses - NGOs in Development Study Group
Session 1 Friday 8 July, 2022, -