SEWA’s Immediate Action and Plan to Make the Informal Sector COVID-19-Resilient

I. COVID-19 and the Informal Sector

Presently, India is passing through the local transmission stage of the COVID-19 pandemic where SEWA’s informal sector workers are hardest hit among all. With no income for the daily wage earners, they fear hunger will kill us before the virus. The country is under a total lockdown with only essential services open. The immediate effect of that is no work, no income on hand, no food to feed the family, and above all, the distressful news all over about having no sign of control of the disease affects the people psychologically.

SEWA, having 2 million women from the informal sector, works in 17 states of India. In Gujarat, 7,87,955 women are involved in farming and animal husbandry. COVID-19 hit exactly when the rabi harvesting was at a peak. The government announced 21 days total lockdown to combat the virus. Farmers had to stop harvesting since they cannot go out. Those who had already harvested cannot go to the market yard since they are closed and when it opened for essential commodities, the transport service providers or labourers were not ready to venture out. There are no buyers at the market yard and the wholesalers are trying to sell the stock that was kept before lockdown. Those who had not yet harvested their produce were hit by unseasonal rains and climate change effects during this period. Moreover, reverse migration had taken place during the Janta curfew to complete the lockdown stage which may increase the liability of the farming households who are hardest hit. The farmers have to start sowing soon for the new season but in the absence of access to seeds, fertilizer or finance, they are unable to do it.

The immediate effect of COVID-19 is so huge that the impact will be deep and far-reaching, pushing millions of people into helplessness and making them vulnerable with no cash for farmers or self-employed communities, no market to sell, no takers of services provided, unemployment, underemployment, and working poverty may push the entire world into poverty with no basic needs like food, water, etc. The following are some of the examples of the challenges faced by the informal sector workers from the ground. These are received by the leaders from the areas through e-platforms. SEWA is taking stock of the situation on the ground daily from all districts and provide guidance and necessary advocacy in an effort to provide remote work for informal sector workers and provide food flow and cash flow in the hands of the women through the leaders who are part of the essential service provider team. SEWA also initiated procurement from farmers wherever possible to provide cash flow and RUDI food kits to the food insecure families.

II. COVID-19’s Direct Effect on the Informal Sector

Bhartben Rathod of Gandhinagar district says that in her district, the farmers are affected due to unseasonal rains. The wheat crops have bent down and now for the next 10 days, they will not be able to harvest and it may develop fungus and turn to black which may be a loss if the same season persists. She is now more worried about the threat of COVID-19 and then the additional burden of the unseasonal rain on their crops.

In Madhya Pradesh, it was peak time for wheat cutting and now everything is at a standstill because of the lockdown. The farmers usually call the machine harvesters from Punjab but with the lockdown, they are not allowed to enter the village and now the harvest is in fields and really need action or else they will lose the season. They appealed to the state government to give permission to farmers and machine harvesters to go out to harvest.

Anjanaben Rathva and Narmadaben from Rajpur village in Chota Udaipur grew cotton and had harvested it just before the lockdown and were to sell it but now the entire house is filled with cotton due to the lockdown and no sign as to when they will be able to sell their harvest for money to repay their debt. Now they fear that they have to pay higher interest for their debt. Like them, there are around 30 other farmers having a total of 200 mann cotton unsold in their village and they are requesting an arrangement to sell their cotton.

Around 150 farmers from Navi dhamai and Juni dhamai village in Kutch are tensed because of COVID-19 but more so because they had sold their entire crops to the trader but now the trader says that banks are closed and he cannot visit the village to pay them. They had taken loans for the season which they are worried that how they will repay.

Reahaben Karansingh Chauhan from Sangal village has grown wheat and it was time to harvest but there are no labourers in the village due to the lockdown. The entire village is on lockdown and no one can enter the village so there was no option but to harvest the wheat by herself and her husband so it was going slow. Two days back, it suddenly rained at night from 2 to 10 pm and thus, her entire wheat harvest got wet. Last season, her entire crop of cotton was spoiled. She had high hopes that 70-80 mann wheat will be produced from which she will keep 30-40 mann for her home use and the remaining 40-50 kilograms to be sold to repay her loan. She is now worried about how she is going to pay now.

The following examples illustrate some of the issues faced in the urban and rural areas:

• Waste recyclers recycle two types of waste: plastic bags with more microns and plastic bags with fewer microns. A large quantity of the waste used to get exported to China by companies like Reliance. However, the Chinese markets have totally shut down due to COVID-19 and hence have stopped purchasing the recycled plastic. This has resulted in a decrease in rates of waste from Rs. 20 to Rs. 18 per kg.
• Ahmedabad city is a hub for the textile and garment industry. There are more than 20,000 home-based and factory-based textile workers. The livelihood of both types of workers has been affected. They are paid per piece and used to earn between Rs. 70 to Rs. 125 per day. Several workers have not received any work for the past three days.
• Head loaders also form a part of the wholesale textile industry in Ahmedabad. The head loaders make a parcel of clothes and deliver it from one shop to another. This delivery of parcels has drastically reduced. Earlier they used to take 15 to 20 trips in a day, which has now decreased to only 1 to 2 trips a day.
• The construction workers are daily wage earners who used to get hired by contractors by 9.00 – 9.30 AM. Now, they do not get hired till 10.00 -10.30 AM.
• The street vendors are the worse affected and have lost their only source of livelihood. The customers have stopped coming to buy vegetables and fruits due to social distancing. Additionally, the police have also started evacuating the natural markets of these vendors.
• More than 10,000 small and marginal farmers from the districts of Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Kheda / Anand, Mehsana, and Sabarkantha could not take their produce to the market as they have been shut down. The farmers are earning half of what they used to make on their produce. For example, the prices of tomatoes have reduced from Rs. 5 per kg to Rs. 1-3 per kg.
• In the rural areas, the informal workers ferrying passengers on autorickshaws have been affected due to the reduced mobility. They are able to get customers only once a day instead of 4 times a day. Their earnings have decreased from Rs. 2000 per day to Rs. 500 per day.

III. SEWA’s Strategy

SEWA has always worked on joint action of struggle and development which brings positivity and hope among the most deprived informal sector workers and based on that, SEWA has experience of working during disasters with immediate relief to the restoration of livelihoods and long-term sustainable actions. Based on that, SEWA has devised a strategy of women, work, and peace. This has worked during disasters like earthquakes, tsunami, or other disturbances. Now, with the new pandemic where the remotely taken joint actions are key, SEWA plans to put in action research on how the informal sector workers can get a platform of remotely working as a relief action.

IV. SEWA’s Immediate and Medium-Term Actions

Furthermore, SEWA feels it requires a decisive, coordinated, and immediate response and calls for urgent, large-scale, and coordinated measures across three pillars: protecting workers in the workplace, stimulating the economy and employment, and supporting jobs and incomes. SEWA has appealed to the government to which the government had positively replied to most of the demands with the announcement of the package for the informal sector workers. (Attached as Annex-1). The Central and States Government has taken many more initiatives to curtail the effects. Many of the states have been declared the notifications and advisory precautionary guidelines to the citizens for the epidemic disease. Also to consider that the situation is not that of the health crisis but would also have major effects on the major labour market and economic crisis that is having a huge impact on communities at large.

1. Immediate connect to the leaders: Upon the announcement of the lockdown, SEWA initiated reaching out to the leaders to guide them on ways to connect with members to take stock of the situation and understand the challenges.

Savitaben Dakle from Aurangabad started making masks at her home and distributed these to the women of her village. She has given 200 masks till now.

2. Set up two-layer cross-learning and spreading awareness and positivity platform on sustaining work: SEWA developed a platform where the leaders from different districts communicate daily on the status of the members and spreading awareness on the measures to contain the local transmission of the virus. That way, the cross-learning from one district to another district happened which was spread to the members of other districts.  That’s how the village level local posters on messages of the hygiene and precautions were spread. Many women started making masks to be supplied to the government or sold to local communities. Work is a healer and with this strategy, SEWA initiated an attempt at how informal sector workers can also start their work remotely which was not possible earlier.

3. Trade wise meetings with leaders:  SEWA also initiated trade wise remote meetings with leaders through phone who were connected with the members of those trades. Through them, SEWA understands the level of effect on members and based on that, an appeal was developed which was submitted to the central government. The majority of the needs have been accepted by the government.

Snehaben from Aarvali district connected her farmers who had harvested wheat but could not sell due to the immediate lockdown. Upon knowing the situation of farmers from the village of Randora, she connected them with Gujarat seed corporation to sell their wheat. 

4. SEWA’s hand pump repairing women got passes under essential service providers: SEWA has trained grassroots women on hand pump repairing and they liaised with the local government and were given passes to ensure a smooth supply of drinking water in the village of Aarvali district.

5. Salt pan workers’ survival measures: Salt pan workers have a season of 8 months where they stay in desert to produce salt. In the deserts, there is no access to basic necessities e.g. grains, vegetables, water, etc. The salt pan workers have to come to nearby villages for purchase. They do not even have even smooth accesses to the information outside, thus, for them, the lockdown was without any prior notice and they were stuck in the desert without means of sustenance. SEWA’s district office liaised with the local government to provide transport facilities and allow salt pan workers to come out of the desert without which they could not have survived in extreme heat, without food and water with their average 4-5 children.

6. Cash in hands of farmers through RUDI procurement: In the situation of lockdown, SEWA started procurement of farm produce from the small and marginal farmers for the RUDI wherever possible. The objective was to ensure that they get cash to ensure food security and plan for the next season.

7. RUDI kits to food-ensure families: SEWA took out the network of supply of RUDI packs to the food-ensure families in the districts of Gujarat. Government Passes were taken by the leaders to provide the food packs to these families in Anand and Aarvali districts. The funds can ensure further procurement from farmers.

8. Vegetable farmers’ linkages to market: SEWA piloted to sell the produce of the vegetable farmers through its outlet of Kamla with due permissions to provide a platform to the farmers.

9. Appeal to the central government for informal sector workers: Looking at the impact on its members, SEWA submitted the following appeal to the central government for the informal sector workers.

• Income support to all the families of the informal economy workers to tide over this crisis, so that they are able to sustain their basic needs.
• Issue a Circular to all the States directing Building and other Construction Workers Welfare Board and other existing Labour Welfare Boards to declare a compensatory package of Rs 5,000/- per month to all the registered workers to tide over the crisis.
• A free public distribution system for ration supply as long as the crisis last.
• Six months’ amortization on repayment of all loans.

10. Agriculture appeal to the state government: Agriculture being state subject, SEWA sent the following appeal to the state government.

• Vegetable growers face lots of challenges to send their vegetables to the marker yard due to limited transport facilities, lack of cash on hand, and limited hours of work by market yards which make them helpless. Vegetables are putrefied and it creates chaos at the market. SEWA appeals to arrange the village collection facilities by the market yards so vegetable growers do not have to go to the market and the safety measures can also be maintained. Alternatively, village leaders shall be given a pass to reach the market yard to collect the vegetables from farmers in the village and sell these at the market.
• Rabi crop is ready for harvesting and farmers need an immediate arrangement to send them to market yards since if they are not transported from farm to village or market yard, they will suffer a lot due to unseasonal rain and economic distress. In this case, special relief shall be given to farmers if they are provided with special government equipment for some 3-5 days or provided with vehicle subsidy. If immediate auction shall be initiated in the market yard, farmer associations who are involved in the integrated supply chain of farming shall be given special provisions.
• The ration shop shall be included for the special 3 months without any cost for the distribution of cereals and also pulses, wherein it is necessary to include other essential things e.g. soap, washing powder, tea, salt, etc.
• SEWA appeals that all the installments announced under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maan dhan scheme shall be given together.
• For the livestock, a system needs to be established to supply dry grass.
• Special alternative livelihood funds or financing arrangements are appealed for craft workers (artisans, garment workers, weavers, other home-based workers) and farm labourers.
• Interest-free loans announced to Sakhi mandal in range of Rs 10 lacs to 20 lacs shall be extended to the groups. Cooperatives and companies set up by voluntary and civil society organisations.

Long Term Actions planned

Livelihoods options for remote working of informal sector

Work is a healer and SEWA has tested this approach at several disasters working with the informal sector. Thus, the vital action will be to restore livelihoods either by training or seed capita or linkages. SEWA would also like to devise a strategy on how the informal sector works can sustain their livelihoods through alternative methods by remotely working and the pilot will be tested on alternative methods of working

The focus will be on developing an alternative livelihoods measure which helps their value chain run during the pandemics or disasters.

Licenses and Dashboard for livelihood support

SEWA would like to devise a platform that can help reach each member and members would reach out to SEWA with their needs/challenges where SEWA would provide information on the available government or any other platforms in their geography to avail relief and adhere to measures. Further looking at the scale in larger districts, SEWA would also like to create a surveillance mechanism to monitor, track, and report program outcomes and metrics. SEWA will evaluate potential alternative methods to conduct day-to-day operations for various SEWA associated entities.

Creation of Livelihood Recovery Fund

Looking at the biggest challenge of cash flow for the informal sector workers, SEWA plans to establish an integrated financing framework for rural communities.  The innovative financing mechanism in livelihood recovery will comprise of a menu of financial products comprising of (i) a Livelihood Recovery Fund, (ii) Insurance products, (iii) Micro-business (rural enterprise) based livelihood protection plan (insurance) and (iv) a moratorium of one month on debt recovery and a waiver of interest on loans in distress hotspots and during pandemics/calamities until capability is restored. This intervention is designed to provide cash flow support to women-led rural enterprises impacted by climate shocks or disasters, prevent a debt trap with money lenders or other informal credit sources, and allow women to be able to hedge risks associated with unfortunate climate-related events. These interventions are also designed for women in the informal sector. # (SEWA)

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