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Showing posts from 2020

New Girl in the Village: My First Week on the Field

Aditi Revankar. I moved to Chhindwara, amidst the pandemic, to begin my Fellowship. For the first two weeks, I quarantined. After that, I ventured into the field. Chourai. Sausar. Bicchua. Tamia. At the end of my first week, I had been to four different blocks on four different days with four different field officers. Most days, we had rain. Some days shine. Always Corona. Of course, we went armed with sanitizers and masks. The Antara Foundation (TAF) intervenes on the demand and supply side, I was told. They work with the frontline workers - who are the providers, as well as with the beneficiaries - who are expectant mothers and young children. A student of economics myself, I was only too pleased to be looking at work through the familiar demand-supply lens. It felt comfortable like a pair of cooling glasses that make it easier to see without squinting, in the harsh sunlight. I was thrilled at this simple enough, theoretically sound approach. However, I soon saw that the practice of

Lockdown experiences in Chhindwara

Prerna Gopal. Prerna, our Sr. program officer based in Madhya Pradesh shares what lockdown meant for her. On 24th March 2020, when the government imposed a nation-wide lockdown, I was one of the many unfortunate people who were locked away from home. Although I have been in Chhindwara for a while, my heart is always in New Delhi, with my family and friends. As I tried to make sense of the situation, I couldn’t help but wonder what this meant for all those frontline workers I meet every day. How would they face the challenges that lay ahead? Were they protected and safe? Did the people living in untrodden corners of Chhindwara understand what is happening? I usually spend seven hours a day travelling from village to village, working with frontline workers and government officials. The new normal mandated that I stay put, leaving me with only a phone to stay in touch with them. On the bright side, I had the opportunity to make use of the extra hours I now had to learn and do something di