Tuesday 25 May 2021

5 trends in the urban poor's response to the pandemic have seeds of solution for the future.





With almost 17% of the urban population across India living in informal settlements, the question arises, has the pandemic impacted us all the same way? What are the particular trends and characteristics that have been seen in the urban poor over the last year and how has the second wave been different?
We decided to seek answers to these questions with a survey of the urban poor from amongst our beneficary base of over 2000 families. Some of the findings reveal interesting trends which must be seriously explored as they hold the key to solving many age old sticky problems.
1.      Education: schooling in the time of Covid19 for underprivileged children. In an endeavor to keep learning ongoing, across the nation, the attempt has been to transition rapidly to online education. Where this has happened successfully, it has led to a long overdue transformation of day to day learning. It has resulted in enhanced learning outcomes for the students by amalgamating learning modules, pupils and technology. Physical location of the tutor and tutee has become inconsequential. Equipped with a simple operative device, given the incentive of data pack recharge on attendance basis and provided appropriate instruction regarding the workings of the device, any child can access quality education across the nation. Be it in a metropolitan, or in the village. This truly is the best way forward to a knowledgeable and empowered India.
Digitisation of education and its delivery through hybrid models which incorporate online modes must be explored in all seriousness as solution of providing access to quality education in rural India.
2.      Daily nutrition: the criticality of access. Per latest reports, the pandemic has left the urban poor in India more bereft of nutrition than their rural counterparts. A large section of rural residents could cushion the blow of pandemic-driven economic disruption due to food grain via the public distribution system (PDS). The urban poor’s access to such ration, however has been minimal. Having provided the parents of our students with dry ration boxes on a monthly basis with the help of our donors, we were able to gauge the difference this basic food security has made to their day to day lives. A majority of destitute families lost their primary source of income due to the lockdown. This has led to tremendous emotional and financial stress. In the words of Naushad Alam, father of Aftab, a student of Pratishthan Learning Centre at Lotus Petal “The boxes of rice, grains, oil, food ingredients helped us out a lot. They prevented our family from going to bed hungry, which we would have had to do as I lost my job as a cook and had suffered a severe hand injury in the early days of the lockdown and was unable to find alternate employment.” Lack of income due to the lockdown may result in further dependency on food from government or charitable organizations and if this is not taken seriously, this may result in a bigger outbreak of multiple diseases caused due to nutritional deficiency.
The provision of supplementary nutrition in the form of dry ration provides a dignified source of food to those from low income families who otherwise would hesitate to stand in the queue for cooked meals boxes.
3.      Migration: an unfortunate reality. In wave one of the pandemic, migrant workers, who are anchors of the underserved population, started returning to their native villages due to fear, anxiety and hunger. Most of them were daily wagers and did not maintain a financial buffer for such an unprecedented, uncertain situation. The unorganised sector in India accounts for over 90% of the workforce and the majority of them are inter / intra state migrants. As normalcy returned towards the mid of last year, reverse migration commenced. There seemed to be hope that once things get back to relative balance in cities, they would be able to find employment again in these low paying yet foundational jobs in society. As the second wave rages, the migrant informal workforce, after having faced a year of deprivation and uncertainty, is better prepared and are depicting relatively well thought out exit strategies from cities. In ceratin cases migration has happened to areas which are not under lockdown. A wage support plan for the vulnerable may be a possible solution to this mass exodus to and from cities.
This may involve mapping their skills in a verifed database which can help them have a wide market access opportunties.
4.      Financial vulnerabilities: Inability to avail relief. Informal sector workers have suffered the maximum financial brunt of the pandemic. Job loss and monetary insecurity has been a harsh actuality for most in the marginalised communities. This has catalysed a new pattern of acquiring help. With bottlenecks in disbursements of loans and financial support for poor urban dwellers, a majority of the underserved are turning to family and friends for help in the form of informal loans at high interest rates. Want of financial assistance from government and employers, insufficient awareness about low interest loans and absence of necessary documents to access these benefits have all compelled the vulnerable to turn to their kin in other cities/back in the village. A prolonged effort to raise awareness and reduce pointless red tape in these moments of crisis is needed.
This is an area already being tapped by multiple financial entities but there is a long way to go in terms of access to urban migrant workforce.
5.      Healthcare: vastly different for those on the fringes of society. High population density is the truth of life in urban slums. Least prepared for the pandemic due to a dearth of basic facilities such as clean water, drainage, waste collection, and secure and adequate housing these areas are potent grounds for the spread of communicable diseases. It has been observed that in the second wave, the marginalised communities are showing better awareness about communicable diseases, the importance of handwashing and maintaining social distancing. How practical these practices are in such close quarters, is of course, an area of discussion but learning from what has transpired in the nation this time around, it is critical to mainstream health in the urban development agenda in the future. Formation of slum emergency planning committees, stopping evictions, equipping PHCs with proper infrastructure, empowering community health workers, plans for mobility and healthcare access are some concrete steps that need to be worked upon.
Assisted Telemedicine is one of the experiments which has seen a steady adoption by the urban poor to access healthcare. Awareness and adoption of asssited telemedicine centres can also provide quality and timely medical access in semi -urban and rual areas as well.
At the Lotus Petal Foundation, our focus has been Education - two successful online schools for our underprivileged students; Nutrition - dry ration and cooked meal box distribution to the impoverished and Healthcare - medical access through our telemedicine center. We have also intiated programs like Bluekhoj.com to provide market access for informal job seekers and tied up with social sector NBFCs to provide interest free loans.
This pandemic has raised a pressing need of united reform towards holistic inclusiveness to develop a more responsive framework for mitigating urban inequality in future.

5 trends in the urban poor's response to the pandemic have seeds of solution for the future.

 


With almost 17% of the urban population across India living in informal settlements, the question arises, has the pandemic impacted us all the same way? What are the particular trends and characteristics that have been seen in the urban poor over the last year and how has the second wave been different?

We decided to seek answers to these questions with a survey of the urban poor from amongst our beneficary base of over 2000 families. Some of the findings reveal interesting trends which must be seriously explored as they hold the key to solving many age old sticky problems.

1.      Education: schooling in the time of Covid19 for underprivileged children. In an endeavor to keep learning ongoing, across the nation, the attempt has been to transition rapidly to online education. Where this has happened successfully, it has led to a long overdue transformation of day to day learning. It has resulted in enhanced learning outcomes for the students by amalgamating learning modules, pupils and technology. Physical location of the tutor and tutee has become inconsequential. Equipped with a simple operative device, given the incentive of data pack recharge on attendance basis and provided appropriate instruction regarding the workings of the device, any child can access quality education across the nation. Be it in a metropolitan, or in the village. This truly is the best way forward to a knowledgeable and empowered India.

Digitisation of education and its delivery through hybrid models which incorporate online modes must be explored in all seriousness as solution of providing access to quality education in rural India.

2.      Daily nutrition: the criticality of access. Per latest reports, the pandemic has left the urban poor in India more bereft of nutrition than their rural counterparts. A large section of rural residents could cushion the blow of pandemic-driven economic disruption due to food grain via the public distribution system (PDS). The urban poor’s access to such ration, however has been minimal. Having provided the parents of our students with dry ration boxes on a monthly basis with the help of our donors, we were able to gauge the difference this basic food security has made to their day to day lives. A majority of destitute families lost their primary source of income due to the lockdown. This has led to tremendous emotional and financial stress. In the words of Naushad Alam, father of Aftab, a student of Pratishthan Learning Centre at Lotus Petal “The boxes of rice, grains, oil, food ingredients helped us out a lot. They prevented our family from going to bed hungry, which we would have had to do as I lost my job as a cook and had suffered a severe hand injury in the early days of the lockdown and was unable to find alternate employment.” Lack of income due to the lockdown may result in further dependency on food from government or charitable organizations and if this is not taken seriously, this may result in a bigger outbreak of multiple diseases caused due to nutritional deficiency.

The provision of supplementary nutrition in the form of dry ration provides a dignified source of food to those from low income families who otherwise would hesitate to stand in the queue for cooked meals boxes.

3.      Migration: an unfortunate reality. In wave one of the pandemic, migrant workers, who are anchors of the underserved population, started returning to their native villages due to fear, anxiety and hunger. Most of them were daily wagers and did not maintain a financial buffer for such an unprecedented, uncertain situation. The unorganised sector in India accounts for over 90% of the workforce and the majority of them are inter / intra state migrants. As normalcy returned towards the mid of last year, reverse migration commenced. There seemed to be hope that once things get back to relative balance in cities, they would be able to find employment again in these low paying yet foundational jobs in society. As the second wave rages, the migrant informal workforce, after having faced a year of deprivation and uncertainty, is better prepared and are depicting relatively well thought out exit strategies from cities. In ceratin cases migration has happened to areas which are not under lockdown. A wage support plan for the vulnerable may be a possible solution to this mass exodus to and from cities.

This may involve mapping their skills in a verifed database which can help them have a wide market access opportunties.

4.      Financial vulnerabilities: Inability to avail relief. Informal sector workers have suffered the maximum financial brunt of the pandemic. Job loss and monetary insecurity has been a harsh actuality for most in the marginalised communities. This has catalysed a new pattern of acquiring help. With bottlenecks in disbursements of loans and financial support for poor urban dwellers, a majority of the underserved are turning to family and friends for help in the form of informal loans at high interest rates. Want of financial assistance from government and employers, insufficient awareness about low interest loans and absence of necessary documents to access these benefits have all compelled the vulnerable to turn to their kin in other cities/back in the village. A prolonged effort to raise awareness and reduce pointless red tape in these moments of crisis is needed.

This is an area already being tapped by multiple financial entities but there is a long way to go in terms of access to urban migrant workforce.

5.      Healthcare: vastly different for those on the fringes of society. High population density is the truth of life in urban slums. Least prepared for the pandemic due to a dearth of basic facilities such as clean water, drainage, waste collection, and secure and adequate housing these areas are potent grounds for the spread of communicable diseases. It has been observed that in the second wave, the marginalised communities are showing better awareness about communicable diseases, the importance of handwashing and maintaining social distancing. How practical these practices are in such close quarters, is of course, an area of discussion but learning from what has transpired in the nation this time around, it is critical to mainstream health in the urban development agenda in the future. Formation of slum emergency planning committees, stopping evictions, equipping PHCs with proper infrastructure, empowering community health workers, plans for mobility and healthcare access are some concrete steps that need to be worked upon.

Assisted Telemedicine is one of the experiments which has seen a steady adoption by the urban poor to access healthcare. Awareness and adoption of asssited telemedicine centres can also provide quality and timely medical access in semi -urban and rual areas as well.

At the Lotus Petal Foundation, our focus has been Education - two successful online schools for our underprivileged students; Nutrition - dry ration and cooked meal box distribution to the impoverished and Healthcare - medical access through our telemedicine center. We have also intiated programs like Bulekhoj.com to provide market access for informal job seekers and tied up with social sector NBFCs to provide interest free loans.

This pandemic has raised a pressing need of united reform towards holistic inclusiveness to develop a more responsive framework for mitigating urban inequality in future.