India's national lockdown, restricting transit and shuttering most businesses, has had a devastating impact on low-wage earners, roadside vendors, and struggling farmers, as jobs are eliminated, road traffic disappears, and market demand evaporates. This project will fund providing emergency food and supplies to 1200 people in Tamil Nadu who are at risk of starvation and cash grants to 100 farmers and individual enterprises for loan or rent payments.
India has been hit with a double whammy by the COVID-19 crisis: (1) with people living so closely packed, a complete lockdown was needed limit contagion; but (2) so many people there are so impoverished that the economic impact of the lockdown threatens them with starvation. Most low-wage workers and roadside vendors and beggars no longer have an income and farmers cannot market their produce. Faced with ruin and starvation, at least two have killed themselves so far.
We will provide food relief for 200 homeless and 200 families at risk; 100 cash grants to help farmers stay afloat, and counseling for anxiety and despair to avert a rash of suicides. We will also work to coordinate the collection of unsold food from farmers to distribute to those in need.
If a farmer can't make postponed loan payments at the end of a 3-month moratorium, his equipment will be repossessed. If a flower vendor cannot sell her current crop, she will have no income to provision for the next season. Keeping such businesses alive during the current crisis will allow them to continue to provide their products and spend the income they receive when the crisis is over, thus avoiding economic collapse.
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