9th International Conference on Gender & Women's Studies 2022- NUSS, Singapore "Achieving Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Post Pandemic Situations A Case Study of an NGO in India"

1. hihindia.org
facebook.com/hihindia.org
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Achieving Gender Equality
and Women Empowerment
in Post Pandemic Situations
A Case Study of an NGO in India
Dr. Madhu Sharan
President, Hand in Hand, India

2. STRUCTURE OF THE PRESENTATION
I. Impact of Covid-19 -- Post
Pandemic: Global and Indian
Context
II. Gender and Covid-19
III. About Hand in Hand India
IV. Methodology of the Research
Paper
V. Strategies, Implementation Efforts
and Outcomes: Economic, Social
and Psychological.
VI. Case Studies
VII. Conclusion

3. COVID 19: IMPACT and ISSUES
 The covid pandemic has impacted every country, every community and every
person in this world but not equally nor in the same ways.
 The pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on low-income countries and
people with low incomes across all countries.
 Almost half (45%) of workers in low and lower middle income countries lost a job
or business due to the pandemic, compared to just 10% of people in high income
countries.
 Home to over 1.4 billion people, India, the second largest country in the world,
has probably suffered one of the most disastrous effects of the covid pandemic
in terms of humongous loss of lives, livelihoods and other social and economic
shocks.
“The inequality and poverty has increased globally due to the pandemic. We estimate
that globally people who have been pushed into extreme poverty or those surviving on
less than $1.90 a day have gone up by 100 million. A large part of that, 50 per cent or 50
million are estimated to be in India. (IMF- April 2022)

4. INDIA: COVID 19 --IMPACT and ISSUES
i) As per the latest WHO estimates, India has reported over 43,803,619 cases
of covid while 5,25,825 people have died of the virus
• Massive underporting -- the total confirmed cases per million are about
13 times larger than in the rest of the world, and the total confirmed
deaths per million are about 85% of that in the rest of the world.
ii) India economy suffered one of the largest contractions.
• Economic turmoil caused by the pandemic over the past two years has
the potential to double the nation’s poverty, erasing the decade-long
gains from the fight against poverty and inequality.
• As per estimates by economists, around 150–199 million additional
people will fall under poverty in 2021–2022; a majority of which are from
rural areas.

5. COVID AND GENDER INEQUALITY
 The World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report confirms what we know from
experience, that Covid 19 has maybe put gender parity back by a generation, and
South Asia is the worst off.
 At current rates of progress, it will take nearly 200 years to achieve any meaningful
equality between women and men.
 Across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic is known to have dramatically increased
gender inequality, but India is probably one of the extreme examples of this harsh
reality.
 With a female population of 662 million, India’s situation has overwhelming
impact on the global picture and gender parity is a distant horizon in the country.

6. COVID and GENDER INEQUALITY in INDIA
 Overall, the period of the COVID-19 pandemic has witnessed a dramatic worsening
of the conditions of poor women and girls.
 It will take systematic efforts to address these inequalities. A strong gender
perspective has to be actively incorporated into policy and consequent action;
and for this, all agencies and organizations, across all levels and platforms, have to
make persistent efforts.
 In the wake of such countless sufferings and distresses, Hand in Hand, India (HiH
India), an international NGO based in India, working for poverty alleviation,
community development and women empowerment across 22 States of India
and 10 countries across the globe, has undertaken significant measures to
support and empower women through the pandemic and post pandemic
situations.
Through its innovative strategies, dedicated implementation efforts, consistent
training, guiding and counseling, and strong monitoring, HiH India has gone beyond
promoting gender equality to ensure WOMEN grew to be strong agents of change in
their household, communities and financial affairs, to help families recover from the
difficult phase of covid pandemic in the post pandemic period.

7. COVID and GENDER INEQUALITY in INDIA
COVID
and
GENDER
INEQUALITY
Loss of
Livelihoods
Unpaid
work
Food, Fuel
and Water
Woes
Lack of Child
Nutrition
Lack of
Food
Security
Poor Health
and hygiene
Domestic
Violence
Early
marriage

8. COVID and GENDER INEQUALITY in INDIA
i) Loss of Livelihoods: In India, during and
post lockdown months, 61% of working men
remained employed while 7% lost their job.
While in the case of women, only 19%
remained employed while 47% suffered a
permanent job loss. Post pandemic, unlike
for men, women’s employment did not
recover at all, rather, it continued to decline.
4 out of 10 women lost their jobs
ii) Unpaid work: Women have done
29% more childcare per week than
men during the pandemic, based on
data from 16 countries. In India, the
unpaid work done by women
(especially related to child care and
elderly care), increased manifold,
even during the lockdown, when
men, due to loss of their jobs, were
also largely confined to their homes
and could’ve shared in household
work but didn’t due to deep seated
patriarchal norms.
Research has found that there has
been a 3 times increase in women’s
workload in the lockdown as
compared to men’s. Ratio is 6 hrs of
women per 1 hr of men in India.

9. COVID and GENDER INEQUALITY in INDIA
iii) Food, Fuel and Water Woes: Women
and girls continued to be responsible for
collection of fuel, firewood and water
even men were at home.
About 5 in 10 women reported having to
put in extra effort to arrange for
additional water in the family.
iv) Health and Hygiene conditions of
poor women and girls were sorely
affected by the pandemic as they could
not access sanitary pads and other health
supplies (like contraceptive pills etc.)
from the public distribution centres.
One study estimated that the closure of
family planning services could result in
nearly 3 million unintended pregnancies,
nearly 2 million abortions (more than
half of them unsafe), and several
thousand more maternal deaths.

10. COVID and GENDER INEQUALITY in INDIA
v) Lack of Child Nutrition: The school
closures associated with lockdown, and
the fact that most schools remained
closed thereafter until early 2022, had
very severe implications for child
nutrition because it meant that the Mid-
Day Meal programme was effectively
suspended. This affected around 80 per
cent of primary school students, or
around 144 million children.
vi) Lack of Food Security: The pandemic
and consequent lockdowns had a
devastating effect on child nutrition and
pregnant and lactating mothers. India
has been one of the worst performing
countries in the world. It
is estimated that around 100 million
pregnant and lactating mothers relied
on this, mostly those already in
conditions of precarious food security.

11. COVID and GENDER INEQUALITY in INDIA
vii) Domestic Violence was on the increase
during lockdowns and afterwards. Nearly 1 in
2 women reported that they or someone they
know have experienced violence since the
start of the pandemic, according to survey
results from 13 countries.
Male family members’ loss of livelihood, anger
and frustration at being confined to homes, as
well as alcohol abuse, all contributed to the
violence.
viii) Early marriage: The lockdown, the
destruction of livelihoods and the increase in
economic insecurity had particularly adverse
implications for older girls and young women,
as many were forced into early marriages.
There were reports from across the country
of a spike in child marriages.

12. Alleviation of poverty with a focus on
access to education, affordable
healthcare, skill development,
entrepreneurship, financial inclusion
and clean environment
Vision
Working hand in hand with poor
women, children and communities to
provide them with dignity, hope and
choice for sustainable development.
Mission
To create 10 million jobs by 2025.
We are currently at 4.9 Million jobs
Goal
HAND IN HAND INDIA
Vision
Toalleviate poverty through job creation and
integrated community development
Mission
Towork for the economic and social empowerment
of wom- en, and thus, of the society, by creating
enterprises and jobs
Goal
Tocreate 5 million jobs by 2020
Our Journey
We began our work in the year 2002, in
Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, In the early
days, we ran evening schools for the
children who worked as Bonded
Labourer.
To keep children in school, we
extended our vision to include their
family, thus addressing community
health, skills development and
eventually job creation.
Today, we are a pan-Indian NGO rewriting
the story of rural India by alleviating
poverty and creating jobs
A Public Charitable Trust serving in 22 States
in India and 8 countries across 3 continents

13. 13
Intervention Strategy
Five Pillars towards an Integrated Approach
Health
►Health Care
►Preventive
and curative
treatment for
alleviation of
anemia and
mal-nutrition
Skill
Developme
nt &
Technology
Centres
►Skilling
►Provide
vocational
skills to
youth,
women and
farmers
Environnent
►Promote Clean
Environnent
►Solid Waste
Management
►Natural
Resource
Management
Child Labour
Elimination
Programme
►Eliminate
Child Labour
►Ensure
children
remain in
school
►Support
Learning
outcomes
Women
Empowerment
►Jobs Creation
for Women
►Enterprise
Creation
►Training
►Affordable
Credit

14. WOMEN
EMPOWERMENT
& JOB CREATION
49,82,667
Jobs created
2,60,316
SHGs formed
28,52,531
Total SHG Members
SKILL
DEVELOPMENT
&
TECHNOLOGY
CENTRES
1,60,672
Women given skill
training
12,449
Youth given Skill
training
CHILD LABOUR
ELIMINATION &
EDUCATION
351, 090
Children enrolled in
regular school and
mainstreamed
1,145
Child-friendly
Panchayats
HEALTH
9,735
Medical camps
5,39, 166
Camp Beneficiaries
14,397
Toilet Construction
Facilitated
10,502
Children brought
out of
malnourishment
ENVIRONMENT
SolidWaste
Management (SWM)
6,47,376
Households covered
by SWM Programme
NaturalResource
Management (NRM)
1,26,283
Land area in hectares
covered
25,883
Farmers skill trained
VILLAGE UPLIFT
PROGRAMME
423
Villages uplifted
31
Active VUP villages
19
Active VUP CSR
villages
473
Total No. of VUP
Villages
Our Impact as
on 1st July 2022

15. Linkage with UN Sustainable
Development Goals
Hand in Hand
India’s work pans
across all the 17
SDGs
H i H I n d i a I n t r o d u c t o r y

16. Awards and Recognitions
Princess Sabeeka Bint Ibrahim Al-Khalifa Global Award
for Women Empowerment as an Individual Champion at
the United Nations Head Quarters, New York
Naari Shakthi Award from His Excellency
President of India on 8th Mar.’17 on the
occasion of Women’s Day

17. HAND IN HAND INDIA: GENDER EQUALITY AND
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
“Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting
the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and
building good governance.” — Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General, United
Nations

18. ORGANIZATION FOCUS: Promoting Gender Equality
and Women Empowerment through Job Creation
Social
Mobilisation
• Targeting women
living at the
bottom of the
pyramid and
forming them into
‘self-help groups’
of homogeneous
women
• Focus on savings-
led SHGs
Training and
Capacity
Building
• Training on Group
Management, Savings,
Lending, Book Keeping.
• Functional Literacy
• Financial Literacy
• Digital Literacy
• Enterprise Development
Training
• Skill Development –
Skilling, Technology,
market linkages.
Access to
Credit for
Enterprises &
Job Creation
• Access to credit for
enterprise
development
• Diverse loan
products
• Bank linkages
• Market Linkages
Promoting
Women-led
institutions
• Promoting self-
sustaining
institutions such as
Cluster Level
Networks (CLNs)
and Block level
networks (BLNs)

19. METHODOLGY
i) This paper presents the findings of a longitudinal study of over 2 years (April 2020 – March
2022). Methodology used is a mix of quantitative data and qualitative case studies including
desk reviews.
ii) Desk reviews were based on research articles on the global impact of covid 19 pandemic with
special reference to impact in India. Effects of the pandemic on women comprised a large part
of the research.
iii) Quantitative data of ‘before and after’ the covid-19 pandemic situations of women have been
compiled from the organization’s monthly MIS reports. The organization maintains a monthly
tracker (MIS) of its members that is updated every month. Quantitative data on various
parameters of women’s lives primarily comprising demographic, economic and social have been
taken from the organizations MIS.
• Additionally, the organization maintained special covid-19 related details (data base)
pertaining to social, psychological and economic support extended to the women and rural
communities at the time of the pandemic including some of the on-going measures during
post pandemic situations. These data have been used extensively in the study.
• Finally, qualitative data has been collected from personal interviews of women including
participant observation methods. Case studies of individual women, entailing their
perceptions and assessment of changes in their lives in the two years of covid situations
have been documented. Interview format was open ended to enable women to speak of
their experiences freely, without any inhibitions or prompting.

20. 2. Designing New Strategies:
for maximum impact in rural
communities like promoting
awareness generation on health
and safety measures;
diversification of livelihoods;
designing new loan products,
covid-19 insurance policy
Promoting fender Equality and Women
Empowerment in Post Pandemic Situations:
ORGANIZATION’S OVERARCHING STRATEGIES
1. Leadership and Staff
Motivation: Flexible Hours –
Support to families who were
covid-19 affected- --OUTPUT driven
– focus on helping rural women
build livelihoods, resilience and
earn incomes.
5. Using SHGs and CLNs as core
platforms to build ‘sisterhood’ to
provide social, economic and
psychological support
4. Supporting Communities:
Setting up Child learning centers
(CLCs); Tuition centers; helpdesk in
Government hospitals for
awareness generation and medical
related support; organizing medical
camps in villages
6. Increased Use of Technology:
DIGITAL CONNECT – Webinars and Zoom
meetings for staff to always stay connected,
cross learning and discuss way forward.
Rural women were trained on digital
technology –for moral, social and economic
support
Promoting ‘digital platforms’ (face book,
whatsapp group) for women to transact
business among each other.
3. Stakeholder Engagement:
Liaisoning with Government and
corporate agencies to ensure last mile
connectivity of Government’s social and
economic security schemes; cash benefit
transfers; medical support;

21. STRATEGIES, IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS &
OUTCOMES
•Training on Digital and Financial Literacy
•Supporting Enterprise Development for increase in incomes
•Providing Access to Credit
• Providing Skill Training
• Facilitating Market linkages and Value added support for enterprise
development
ECONIMIC SPHERE: IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS & OUTCOMES
•Building Resilience and Strengthening Women’s Social bonds
•Access to Government’s Social Security and Financial Inclusion Schemes
•Training and Awareness generation on Covid-19 related Services
•Setting Up Child Learning Centers
•Organizing Free Medical Camps
•Setting up Helpdesks in Government Hospitals
SOCIAL SPHERE: IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS & OUTCOMES
•Providing moral support and building solidarity and social cohesion
through regular meetings and interactions
PSYCHOLOGICAL SPHERE: IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS & OUTCOMES
DIGNITY RESILIENCE
HOPE

22. ECONIMIC SPHERE: IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS &
OUTCOMES
1. Training on Digital and Financial
Literacy: to plan household expenses;
SAVE money; transact business on a
digital platform and access Government
schemes through ‘online banking.’ –
2,62,029
2. Training on Business development to
establish- expand – improve their
business --4,82,618
3. Supporting Enterprise Development
/livelihoods promotion among rural
women with integrated support of
training, credit, monitoring and
mentoring: 5,05,689.
4. Providing Access to Credit to build
livelihoods (Banks, MFIs, SHG
Savings): 5,04,622
5. Providing Skill Training to enable
rural women to sustain /develop
enterprises (farm/ allied sectors non-
farm, energy based etc.): 12,432
6. Creating Linkages with markets and
value added services; including
digital connect of women transacting
business on ‘facebook and
‘whatsapp’ groups: 12,987
The organization has provided economic support through its various innovative
strategies through and in post pandemic situations and this has given a lot of respite
to the women in the toughest times.

23. Training on Financial and Digital Literacy

24. ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT

25. ENTERPROISES PROMOTED by SHG WOMEN

26. SKILL TRAINING & CREATING LINKAGES

27. SOCIAL SPHERE: IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS and
OUTCOMES
A famous quote by financial editor, and CEO of Her Money that, “Resilience isn’t a single
skill. It’s a variety of skills and coping mechanisms. To bounce back from bumps in the
road as well as failures, you should focus on emphasizing the positive,”
In the last two years, the organization has worked relentlessly to provide social and
psychological support to our large group of rural women and their networks to help
them build resilience and address domestic, economic and community related issues.

28. SOCIAL SPHERE: IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS and
OUTCOMES
I) Building Resilience and Strengthening Women’s Social bonds: we provided a lot of
training to women self-help groups (SHGs) and Cluster level networks (CLNs) of
women on building resilience to promote livelihoods and draw social and moral
support from each other to address their household, livelihoods and market related
issues.
 A network of 2.8 million women in 2,60,316 SHGs and 996 CLNs comprising
approximately 12,000 SHG women were trained and interacted closely with each
other.

29. SOCIAL SPHERE: IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS
and OUTCOMES

30. SOCIAL SPHERE: IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS and
OUTCOMES
ii) Access to Government’s Social Security
and Financial Inclusion Schemes: Schemes
related to health, education of children;
livelihoods training, access to subsidised
loans were provided to our rural women.
Training on digital literacy to conduct
online banking and transact business on a
digital platform was encouraged. - 55,561
members Linked with Govt. scheme.

31. SOCIAL SPHERE: IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS and
OUTCOMES
iii) Training and Awareness generation on
Covid-19 related Services: a continuous activity
in post pandemic situations- related to
maintaining social distancing; wearing face
masks and frequent sanitizing of hands-
motivating to take timely vaccinations –
addressing myths around vaccination. 2,78,028
people were supported with covid-19 related
awareness and 1014 vaccinations camps were
held.

32. SOCIAL SPHERE: IMPLEMENTATION
EFFORTS and OUTCOMES
iv) Setting Up Child Learning Centers – to
help children with learning and tuition
support (free of cost). Also help cope with
loss of education due to closure of schools.
Reduced burden on ‘mothers’ – provided
mental and financial relief – focus on
livelihoods – save money on tuitions
• 23 Child Learning /Tuition Centers
• 9,486 Children mainstreamed in
Government Schools

33. SOCIAL SPHERE: IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS
and OUTCOMES
v) Organizing Free Medical Camps: for health check-ups and distribution of medicines,
hygiene kits and counselling services
 General and special health camps organised: 1,498
 Hygiene Kits Distributed (Face Mask, Soap, Sanitizer, etc.) – 2,48,829
vi) Setting up Helpdesks in Government Hospitals to support patients and family
members access medical services and Government schemes related to health: 1,186, 962
patients supported through our 5 help desks across 4 States.

34. IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS and OUTCOMES in
PYSCHOLOGICAL SPHERE
 Providing moral support and building solidarity and social cohesion
through regular meetings and interactions- counselling support – 20,000
 Support provided through tele-medicines and help desks in Government
hospitals
 Constant follow up
Quote -- I will share

35. STRATEGIES, IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS
and OUTCOMES
•Training on Digital and Financial Literacy – 2,62,029
•Supporting Enterprise development – 5,05,689
•Providing access to credit – 5,04,622
• Providing skill training – 12,432
•Creating linkages – 12,978
ECONIMIC SPHERE: IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS & OUTCOMES
• Building Resilience & Strengthening Women’s Social bonds – 2.8 million women
• Access to Government’s Social Security and Financial Inclusion Schemes – 55,561
• Training and Awareness generation on Covid-19 related Services – 2,78,028
• Setting Up Child Learning Centers - 23 CLCs and 9,486 Children mainstreamed
• Organizing Free Medical Camps - 1498
• Setting up Helpdesks in Government Hospitals – 1,186,962
SOCIAL SPHERE: IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS & OUTCOMES
• Providing moral support and building solidarity and social cohesion --20,000
PSYCHOLOGICAL SPHERE: IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS & OUTCOMES
DIGNITY RESILIENCE
HOPE

36. CASE STUDY: Community Entrepreneurship
through Vermicomposting
Shanta Bai, a resident of Ramareth village
in Udaipur district (Rajasthan), belongs to
the "Vaishno Devi" SHG.
In June 2021, when the lockdown due to
COVID-19 was over, HIH assisted her and
over 1,000 SHG members in establishing a
Vermicomposting units in their home
backyards.
Inputs provided :
• Establishing approx. 10 units in each
village
• Technical inputs on the turning of
vermicomposting beds, waste
collecting, production systems, and
daily maintenance of the units.
• Use cow manure as source material
for the composting units.
• Making of additional beds from
parent beds
• Access to Credit
• Market linkages

37. CASE STUDY: Community Entrepreneurship
through Vermicomposting

38. CASE STUDY: Addressing Loss of Livelihood with
Alternate Livelihoods
• To cope up with the loss of livelihood after COVID-19, members of Jeevan Jyoti
Cluster Level Network from village Jatisayani in Jodhpur,Rajasthan started their own
Catering Business.
• They provide catering services for marriages and other family functions in nearby
villages.
• The members use digital platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook for publicity of
their services and to get work orders.
• On every order, each member gets Rs 1,000 per day. During marriage and festival
seasons, each member is able to earn around Rs. 15,000/- a month.
• This is MORE than what their families earned during pre- pandemic days!!

39. CASE STUDY: Making COVID Crisis an Opportunity
• Ms. Manju, hailing from Kanchipuram has been an
active member of Panipookal SHG for the past five
years.
• When during COVID -19 her husband lost his job,
Manju supported her family of four members.
• With the help of HIH ,she received 2,500 face
mask stitching orders and generated revenue of
INR 10,000($125) She also sold cloth materials and
country sugar and gained additional income.
• With the income earned, post COVID, Ms. Manju
set up a small fancy shop and started
entrepreneurial journey.
• After business coaching program and credit
support , she started her second shop with
additional facilities (photocopy service, tailoring,
clothing accessories) in which her husband also
works along with her.

40. CASE STUDY: Post COVID Recovery: Realising New
Opportunities
• Ms. Shanthi from Kanchipuram
has been a member of Hand in
Hand India's Vetrimalai SHG for
the past 15 years.
• During COVID , when the family
lost their business , Hand in Hand
India supported them with an
order for preparation of 21,220
soaps and 2000 (250 ml)
handwashes.
• This was a blessing in disguise for
the family of four, since the entire
family is now engaged in the
making of soaps even after COVID
and earning a steady monthly
income of around INR 15,000
($188).

41. HAND IN HAND INDIA: PROMOTING GENDER
EQUALITY AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
There is no tool for development more effective than the
empowerment of women – kofi Annan, Former Secretary General,
United Nations
…..and this is precisely what Hand in Hand, India, one of the largest NGOs in the
country, has relentlessly promoted in pandemic and post pandemic situations.

42. THANK YOU
Visit us at www.hihindia.org
www.facebook.com/hihindia.org
www.twitter.com/HandinHandIndia
H i H I n d i a
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