Providing Life Skills to 300 Girls living in Slums

Dear friends,

I hope all of you are doing well and fighting CORONA 19 successfully. Best wishes from Vacha team for this.

On our side we were very excited as all the Women’s Day programmes with participants in Girls’ Empower project were going very well. There were Fund Days for mothers and other women in their families, competitions in dance, street theatre, essays on topics like ‘That day I was very angry’ or ‘Why I love my friends’ etc. so that girls’ learn to express themselves in many ways. The entire team had also been working for celebration of 30 years of Vacha on March 17 but the COVID 19 struck before that. We had to cancel all that we had planned.

 For social distancing the community organizers have had to keep away from bastis (‘slums) which are very crowded and have poor sanitation. The community organizers and the coordinators keep in touch with every girl and some supportive boys on cell phone and are there for them in case of emergency. They also emphasis on the necessary care that must be taken for personal safety and for stopping spread of CORONAVIRUS. However, in the midst of so much poverty and crowded living it is difficult for them to observe the necessary health care. All that we have been able to do is to distribute soap and one week grocery in bastis in the adjoining district of Kalyan-Dombivli where the residents are even poorer that most bastis in Mumbai that we cover. 94 per cent of Indian workforce is in informal sector. Our girls’ fathers and brothers are daily wagers or often run small unregistered shops, handcarts with goods, drive three wheelers with passengers, contract workers without any security in small factories and so on. Most Hindu women from more conservative Northen areas of the country as do Muslim women from several parts stay home or do home based piece work. In one large area inhabited mostly by a Maharashtrian  dalit community (formerly treated as untouchables and still considered very low caste, in the very structured Hindu caste system, despite positive discrimination by the State) women work as maids in for middle class families. The CORONA 19 situation is in its initial stage. Worse is expected. Attempts are made to have strict lockouts and warnings that are not yet fully successful.

Your continued support keeps our morale up as usual.

With many thanks and best wishes to survive in best way during this world crisis.