Nutritional interventions like the Mid-Day Meals have been hailed by the UN as the best approach to food security for children. However the current pandemic situation may reverse these gains. Fortifying the supply chain infrastructure of such schemes and mainstreaming ‘nutrition’ in the country’s political discourse might hold the answer.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his monthly radio program – Mann ki Baat, said that the month of September will be observed as ‘Poshan Maah’ or ‘Nutrition Month.’ Taking cognisance of the importance of a nutritious diet for children, he added, “For our children and our students to display their optimum potential, show their mettle; nutrition and proper nourishment play a very big role.”
The statement couldn’t come at a more opportune moment. Malnutrition is the cause of death for 70 percent of the children under five years of age. Inadequate dietary intake is leading to growth issues such as stunting for as many as 38 percent of children. States with highest child population base – Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh – register maximum number of underweight cases.
mid-day meals for rural students
However, in the recent years, the current government brought about significant momentum in nutritional interventions by strengthening programs such as the Mid-Day Meals (MDM) scheme for school children, and introducing the national health mission or the POSHAN Abhiyaan, among others. These efforts helped bringing down the percentage of stunted children under-five from 48 percent in 2005-06 to 38.4 percent in 2015-16.
The Mid-Day Meals, particularly, has been instrumental not only in increasing enrolment and attendance of children at school, but also in ensuring nutritional security for kids. In the year 2018-19, the scheme is said to have served 9.17 crore children in 11.35 lakh schools across the country. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) hailed the MDM scheme as the best route to food and nutrition security for children.
But the outbreak of Covid-19 and the ensuing lockdowns may impair these gains. Distribution of MDM has been disrupted as schools have closed down and the Aanganwadi Workers (AWWs), driving these efforts of providing food supplementation under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), are diverted to attend to Covid-19 related work. This is impacting the underprivileged children whose only means of nutrition are these meals.
Such disruptions cause ‘dietary shocks’ which will result in possible weight-loss among children. According to data even the slightest drop in weight, as minor as 0.5 percent, can cause a substantial escalation in India’s overall underweight percentage.
Although the Union Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD) responded with an additional fund allocation of INR 1,700 crores to continue the MDM during the pandemic, implementation at local district level remains a challenge.
mid-day meals for school children
India needs to strengthen the supply-chain infrastructure that programs like MDM depend on. And create a top-down push to make nutrition a central part of the political and administrative discourse. The good news is India has built a robust network of Anganwadi Centres whose services can be ramped up to keep the lifeline of MDM alive. The AWWs can be trained on the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to streamline the distribution processes such that it can withstand future crisis. What’s more, with focus on the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), the New Education Policy (NEP) proposes to integrate breakfasts with MDM. These efforts will help making health and nutrition an important part of the deliverable of the administrative leadership.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit us hard and the development sector was not saved from it either. I am part of the core team of Smile Foundation’s girl child and women empowerment programme Swabhiman. Our interventions involved support in terms of intensive on-ground activities and in person interactions. But to prevent the spread of COVID-19 such activities halted at the initiation of the lock-down. Women and adolescent girls were majorly impacted during this time as the physical and psychological pressure on them increased with accessibility to education, livelihood, hygiene, nutrition, and community services being adversely affected. The Swabhiman team focused on providing a support system to the women and girls by connecting through phone calls, text messages and virtual platforms, helping them navigate the challenges brought by the pandemic.
Counseling for pregnant women and new mothers
Support for family planning
The biggest challenge was faced by pregnant women and lactating mothers who were at a vulnerable stage and were stressed out as to how to handle themselves and the new born during this time and get the required services. The mobilisers in the various project locations connected through phone calls with this target group and with the community health services like Aanganwadis, Primary Health Centres (PHCs), and government hospitals and made sure that all kinds of support; the required information regarding check-ups, immunization, emergency numbers and other relevant care was available on time. This aided many successful institutional deliveries with appropriate post-delivery care to the women and the newborns.
Access to Sanitary Napkins and Contraceptives
Another challenge was availability of sanitary napkins and contraceptives. With constant counseling over years, many adolescent girls, women have started buying sanitary napkins on their own but with the lockdown the market availability of sanitary napkins declined and in many areas it was nil. To help them maintain the hygiene, sanitary napkins were distributed in various locations. Similarly, the availability of contraceptives also declined in the market and the Swabhiman Team distributed condoms as contraceptives to couples to help them maintain their family planning method.
Awareness on Livelihood and Income Generation
Awareness and support for income generation
Losing out on jobs was a common challenge that was faced by the unorganized working sector and the majority of the urban slum population belongs to this sector. To help and support the families, awareness and information on various government financial aid schemes are being provided to the communities with proper support to get the benefit. Information about money management and ideas on income generating sources are also being provided to the people like mask making, marketing of products through social media.
Sessions for Mental Well-Being of Adolescent Girls
support for mental well being
Online sessions on life skills, nutrition, career counseling, yoga, hygiene, Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health (ARSH) are being regularly organized for adolescent girls to keep them engaged and not let the lockdown and isolation period affect their mental well-being.
Now, as the “Unlock” has started in a phased manner, Swabhiman has resumed its on-ground activities taking into proper consideration the social distancing norms and sanitization practices. However, connecting over digital platforms has become a routine that has opened many new doors for community women and girls and will be a useful tool for us in the future as well.
Hoping for good times ahead!
To support Smile Foundation’s women empowerment programme visit https://www.smilefoundationindia.org/she-can-fly/
Charles Darwin was one of the first person’s to suggest that our expressions may actually intensify our feelings. This theory is commonly known as the ‘feedback loop’ or even ‘facial feedback hypothesis’. Simply using the same muscles as a smile will put one in an instant happy mood. That is because use of those muscles is a part of how the brain evaluates mood. A smiling expression feeds on how we experience mood, therefore making us feel happier or even a joke seem funnier.
What constitutes of a real smile?
The importance of the eyes and forehead when smiling authentically are very critical. The genuine smile involves not just the muscles around the mouth, but also the ones that cause the cheeks to raise and the eyes to crescent. People who smile just with their mouths (let’s consider the “say cheese” smile when taking a photograph) don’t experience the same rewards as those who are smiling with their entire face; yes, no doubt they do experience some of the benefits, just to a lesser degree.
Fake it till you make it
Smiling can trick your brain into believing you are happy which can then spur actual feelings of happiness. But it doesn’t end there. Study shows how the brain is connected to the immune system “over and over again”; depression weakens your immune system, while happiness on the other hand has been shown to boost our body’s resistance.
What is superb is that just the physical act of smiling can make a huge difference in building your immunity. When you smile, the brain sees the muscle’s activity and assumes that humour is actually happening. It does not bother to sort out whether you are smiling because you are genuinely joyous, or because you are just pretending.
Even forcing a fake smile is considered to legitimately reduce stress and lower your heart rate. There are plenty of more studies out there to make you smile. Smiling helps reduce the body’s response to stress and lower heart rate in tense situations; another study linked smiling to lower blood pressure, while yet another suggests that smiling leads to longevity.
There are too many good things that come from smiling for you in order to not to make your smile a priority in your life. Be proactive and take care of your smile every day. It is not only about how your smile can change how people perceive you; it can also affect other people’s health and well-being. We all deserve a happier, less stressful life, so share your lovely smile with others and you will bring good things not only into your life, but into the lives of those around you as well.
Smile, its free therapy!
Let us list down the multiple benefits of Smiling:
Smile for mental well being
Smiling is very good for your health
You tend to think of a smile as a result of positive emotions or stimuli, but it turns out that your smile can actually affect your stress levels and productivity, too. Smiling also releases endorphins, which improves your mood, helps you relax, and lowers your blood pressure. Endorphins are the same chemicals you get from working out or running, resulting in what is known as a runner’s high. Smile more to get that high without running. Smiling is so contagious, the benefits of your smile extend beyond your own body to the people you engage with.
Improves your heart health
The release of endorphins through smiling increases blood flow. Smiling has been associated with an increased HDL (the good cholesterol) levels in the body. Smiling also lowers the stress hormones (cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine). Thus, smiling and laughing more can improve overall heart health for sure!
Maintains your blood pressure
Neuropeptides are essentially required by the nerve cells for communication. These neuropeptides are responsible for the release of the happy chemical messengers (neurotransmitters) of the brain like dopamine, endorphins and serotonin. Whenever you smile these neurotransmitters are released in the body which not only relaxes the body but also helps manage your heart rate and blood pressure.
Gives a boost to your immune system
Smiling and laughing initiates the release of serotonin in the body which increases the sense of happiness and well-being in the body. Serotonin also helps boost the immune system as it stimulates monocytes and lymphocytes (which are types of white blood cells that fight against infections in the body) and also regulates the release of cytokines (chemical messengers of the immune system).
Smiling tends to improve your relationships
People find you more attractive when you smile. Studies show that different areas of the brain light up when looking at pictures of people who are smiling versus who are not smiling. People who are smiling to any degree are generally labelled more attractive (and women are considered more trustworthy) than those with neutral expressions.
Smiling improves effectiveness in the workplace
The benefits of smiling extend beyond interpersonal relationships to even the work environment. Smiling at your co-workers creates moments of connection that lead to greater productivity and teamwork. People in the service industry prove to have a more positive effect on customers when they smile. People in leadership positions tend to favour their employees who smile more regularly.
Smile for better mental health and well being
Smiling boosts your activity
Not only can smiling make you feel happier and more positive, but it can also help you become far more productive. Studies have shown that being happy has a great effect on productivity in the workplace.
Smiling can cause us to be happy and experience happier emotions! This helps us to become more productive as we can have a better mindset. Although, this can also be said for the opposite, negative emotions can cause us to become drained and less productive, so best to keep on smiling.
You will make a better leader
If you are in a position of power or want to be in one, smiling may be the key to your success. Smiling is a more effective leadership technique than having great management responsibilities. The next time you really want to show off those leadership skills, just smile please. Kill them with success and bury them with a smile!
You tend to be more approachable
Turn that frown upside-down if you want to make some friends please! Studies have found that people are more willing to engage socially with others who are smiling. A smile is indeed an inviting facial expression that tells people you are willing to talk and interact with them.
Smiling will make you far more comfortable
Our natural tendency is to stick to things that are familiar, but smiling tends to decrease this need. A study found that smiling can make you more comfortable in situations you would otherwise feel very awkward in.
You tend to be more trustworthy
If you want to improve your credibility, simply smile more. What could be easier than that? Trusting doesn’t come easily to many, but smiling at someone may definitely help. A smile can mean more than a pleasant greeting. Learn how to maximize your daily smiles to improve your health and relationships.
Practice makes one perfect
Practice makes one perfect—Children smile, on an average, 400 times a day, whereas the happiest adults only smile 40-50 times a day.
Consider the hidden power of smiling, that smiling is like a superpower. But unlike the power to fly or to become invisible, this one can be learned, practiced diligently, and improved upon of course.
So do watch a funny movie or even a sitcom, play more with your kids, hang out with happy people and practice calling to mind someone who really lights you up when you are posing for a picture. The smile on your face could literally make you happier, healthier, more effective, way more attractive, and you will live a longer life. Doesn’t the thought of that make you smile?
With a centralised platform acting as an ecosystem of health services, the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) can revolutionise how India delivers healthcare at scale.
Taking a quantum leap towards the goal of Universal Healthcare for all, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of National Digital Health Mission (NDHM). The project proposes to make healthcare accessible and affordable for every Indian through an integrated digital platform functioning as an ecosystem of various health services.
A health ID for every Indian citizen will be created in the form of a mobile app and will be linked to this platform. This way, the platform will act as a repository of an individual’s health records about past consultation, medications, doctors consulted and the health facilities visited. However, enrolling on the healthcare platform and sharing data is voluntary and up to the discretion of the citizens. Even after they are onboard, no data will be shared unless the individual authorises it. It comprises a Digi Doctor feature that allows specialists to enrol in to the platform and offer digital prescriptions enabled by electronic signatures. A digital national health registry has also been provisioned to work as an integrated foundation of national health data.
The National Health Analytics (NHA), the body which spearheaded implementation of Ayushman Bharat, has built the NDHM platform. The genesis of this idea goes back to 2018 when NITI Aayog tendered the thought of creating an automated and centralised process to recognise the unique identities of the users of National Health Stack (NHS) – a shared digital healthcare infrastructure hosting centralised health record for all citizens.
national digital health mission, Smile health services
The current scheme will not only make healthcare more accessible but can also turn India into a powerhouse of healthcare knowledge. By leveraging machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, the National Digital Health Mission seeks to analyse its data repository to draw insights on disease patterns, predict onset of ailments or seasonal outbreaks. This will significantly add to the effectiveness of healthcare by making it more proactive. It will also enable livelihood opportunities through the possibilities of bringing in entrepreneurs who might want to build solutions aligned to the proposed infrastructure.
The government is also taking steps to ensure security of data by mandating a framework and a set of minimum standards for data privacy protection. All the core activities and verifications like generation of Health ID or approval of a doctor/facility will remain with the government. Yet experts remain wary about NDHM’s implications on data protection. Many suggest that the mission should define stringent policies against commercial exploitation of Sensitive Personal Information (SPI) by private entities like insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and device manufacturers. Most of the diagnostic centres and pathology labs are dominated by the private sector. Question is how will the government bring them all into the fold of National Digital Health Mission ensuring that they all adhere to confidentiality of the information?
The outbreak of novel coronavirus has created an unprecedented situation around the world, it has impacted all sectors including education of rural poor students. Humankind is no stranger to calamitous outbreaks of diseases. However, this is the first viral outbreak of this nature and scale in our lifetime.
The number of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases surged to more than 22 million across the globe, while the number of cases in India crossed 2.9 million as of August 21, 2020.
The nationwide ‘unlock’ / ‘Lockdown’ phases in India began March 25th onwards. All educational institutions were closed to promote the need for social-distancing, aggravating the impact on education. Schools and educational institutes have remained closed even after the unlock phases to ensure the safety of students, teachers and their families.
COVID-19 has posed such an emergency situation that the whole educational system has switched to e-learning in order to keep the students engaged in their academics. The unexpected closure of schools during the lockdown has led to digital education to ensure safety and to keep up the students with the curriculum. Hence, it is quite challenging for teachers, parents, and students to get used to the new age of schooling through e-learning. As no one knows till when the schools and other educational institutions remain shut.
The impact was more severe for disadvantaged children and their families. In India, where most people still live in rural areas, almost 70 per cent of children attend government schools. Nationwide digital learning is practically impossible in such schools and comes with its opportunity costs.
Poor internet connectivity, power supply, lack of smartphones and other gadgets hinder education of poor students in rural areas. The Niti Aayog, in its Strategy for New India@75 report, said 55,000 villages in the country did not have mobile network coverage.
School students between 4 and 12 years of age in rural villages hardly own mobile phones or know how to use them for digital teaching.
Online class for education of poor children
Teachers connect with them through their parents’ phones, ultimately consuming their time. Mostly, parents who go outside from their homes, struggle between their work and the education of their children.
An in-house survey by the University of Hyderabad, it is found 2,500 students had issues with online teaching. Though 90 per cent of the respondents had a mobile phone, about 63 per cent of them could only access online classes infrequently or not at all.
Interestingly, among the concerns raised about online instruction, 40 per cent reported unreliable connectivity as being a major deterrent, while 30 per cent cited the cost of data. Significantly, 10 per cent reported on uncertain electricity supply as a concern. On the other hand, while mobile phones are more or less available to all, those who own laptops or computers are very few in number.
The New Education Policy, 2020 will prepare school systems to face such pandemics more efficiently and without prolonged disruption in the future and move towards building a strong public education system in the country specifically for students in rural villages in India. COVID-19 has taught us how schooling is not equivalent to merely learning, but encompasses a social space, a social process, to learn to live, think and act for the betterment of one’s self and society as a whole.
While the New Education Policy 2020 has the potential to build an intelligent society and a globally competitive workforce, the realities of digital divide and an under-skilled teaching staff can be formidable blockers on the way.
With the advent of intuitive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the world was undergoing a steady shift. In the past six months this shift was expedited with the outbreak of COVID-19. The need for contact-less operation of day to day lives has forced the world to go virtual overnight. In the post COVID world where costs will be measured in terms of sustainability and digitalisation, survival will depend on how well we adapt to this new normal. In this backdrop, India’s launch of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is not only timely but also has the potential to provide a safety-net that can insulate talent from any such future socio-economic jolts. Its focus on innovation, digital leverage and entrepreneurship is a great promise towards building a skill-based learning model where the outcome will be job security and better livelihood.
De-streaming education prepares one for the complex and multidisciplinary modern world
The New Education Policy 2020 blurs the boundaries between rigid streams of education – arts and sciences, sports, vocational and academic streams. This multi-disciplining will serve two purposes. One, it will prepare the students for a more complex business world of today which requires skills that are not soiled by technical-only or humanities-only approach. The inter-disciplining of education will also help inculcate attributes such as emotional intelligence, critical thinking and problem-solving – skills necessary for surviving in a rapidly machine driven intuitive tech world.
Multiple exit option will help skilling and employment to go hand in hand: The New Education Policy allows multiple entry and exit points to students during under-graduation. On completion of each year of education/a given program they are recognised with a certification, diploma or a degree. This enables students to temporarily break away from formal education to gain practical on-the-job training and then get back to higher education utilising the Academic Bank of Credit – a digitally storing academic credits system that students can use at any point of time to earn their degree. This is a classic way of integrating education with employment that will make students job ready and even eligible for higher wages as soon as they graduate.
Interjecting new age tech education to make talent thrive in an AI economy
Inclusion of coding from 6th standard will go a long way in making talent ready for the ‘21st-century skill,’besides closing the current skill gap in coding literacy. The emphasis on application of ideas and concepts for solving real world problems will make learning experiential. Introduction of contemporary subjects such as AI, Big Data Analysis, and Machine Learning will prepare India to thrive in an AI economy.
Holistic learning to build a cadre of globally responsible talent: Community engagement will constitute an important part of the new education system. It will help intertwining of subjects such as climate, culture, values and environment awareness.This approach will be foundational to building a talent cadre equipped to respond to the contemporary global challenges.
The essence of the NEP 2020 lies in the process in which students acquire skills. Through a learning model founded on digital, multilingualism and multidiscipline, the New Education Policy if implemented well, will be a true catalyst in building an intelligent society and a globally-competitive workforce.The challenge, however, will be in making this tech driven education vision inclusive. Digital divide remains a reality in India. What can the NEP 2020 do to bring the students – on the wrong side of the technology divide – into the fold of the new learning scheme? The other challenge is building a robust pool of teaching staff not only skilled in imparting education in a digital environment but also enabled to constantly upgrade knowledge to keep up with the constantly transforming market and technology.
With tele-medicine the goal of Universal Health Coverage can find its finest success story in India, provided we come up with solutions that align to the country’s ground realities. Language, digital infrastructure and awareness will be the game changers.
The time to expedite the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) goal has never been more critical than now. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought healthcare to the centre stage of public discourse today. Government and health authorities are rejigging policies overnight to fast track delivery of medical care. A case in point is the announcement by NITI Aayog about India’s decision to recognise tele-medicine as a viable mode of remote health consultation. If implemented well, tele-medicine can revolutionise India’s access to healthcare.
At its current state, most of the medical specialists and advanced hospitals are concentrated in urban areas. This leaves approximately 926 million Indians who live in villages, small cities, and towns struggling for adequate care. Against the WHO recommended doctor to patient ratio of 1:1000, in India it is 1:2000. And the doctors who are working in remote areas are not equipped enough to offer any specialised consultation to the patients due to lack of adequate investment in rural healthcare infrastructure.
Tele-medicine can address these gaps to a great extent. Through community based tele-health kiosks in small towns and villages, patients can connect with specialist doctors at the nearest urban hospital to carry out diagnostics. The good news is India continues to have one of the fastest growing bases of internet users where the rural internet users are said to be increasing by 58 per cent annually. By 2034, 80 per cent of India will have digital connectivity. Similar projections are made for access to smartphones. These developments augur well for enhancing healthcare accessibility through digitisation.
Tele-healthcare can also improve efficiency in terms of coverage of patients per day. The number of examinations can double as compared to OPD consultations thanks to the streamlining of processes through technology. This can also fill the void of doctor patient ratio.
tele-medicine and tele-healthcare for people in rural India
Rural health kiosks can also help enabling livelihood across the village communities. Each of these kiosks will require manpower which can be stationed at these centres. Through skilling, the village youth can become the first-line responders of preventive and essential healthcare. They can be trained to perform services such as checking blood pressure, running tests for intestinal sickness, blood glucose levels, and haemoglobin, and administering over-the-counter medicines for fever and aches.
However, to get there India will have to scale infrastructural and behavioural hurdles. For one, while a number of Indian startups have launched healthcare apps that facilitate remote consultation, very few support local languages. Second is the payment option. Most of the tele-health offerings support digital wallets like Paytm or Google Pay – this model of transaction may not be very popular in remote areas. A bigger challenge is the need for behavioural change. Population in smaller towns and villages have a bias towards brick and mortar health set up. Awareness about tele-medicine is low and therefore the buy-in about its effectiveness.
If these challenges are tackled then India can become the finest success story of the UHC goal. Not just that, tele-medicine can also become a thriving investment and entrepreneurship opportunity. The game-changer, however, will be launching solutions which are customised to the ground realities of the country.
tele-medicine and tele-healthcare for the rural poor in India
Smile on Wheels, a mobile hospital programme of Smile Foundation takes healthcare to the doorsteps of vulnerable communities in the hardest to reach places. It has benefited more than 1 million people so far.
Through it’s programme Health Online within the Smile on wheels programme, tele-medicine or e-clinics overcome the scarcity of doctors in remote rural locations. For every 10 on ground clinics with paramedics there is 1 digital clinic with a doctor covering many communities.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the paradigm for the entire world. Businesses across all industries have taken a massive hit. Living standards and lifestyles have undergone a sea change. We have seen massive transformations in the way the world is moving ahead while dealing with the pandemic. We have seen many industries shutting shop and many others opting for the digital route. There was huge impact in the education sector as well with most of them moving to online schools. And who knows it better than the leaders of educational institutes.
So CFC team decided to get in touch with principals across the country. What we realized was that when the lockdown was announced and schools shut down, it created an atmosphere of uncertainty amongst principals, teachers, students and their parents. We decided to bring the school community online and we started to reach out to our partner schools to understand how the classes would be conducted and how children could be kept happy. A series of webinars was then organized with principals to understand two things:
How to keep children happy; &
Best practices to manage online school in a Covidian world.
We got some very interesting perspectives from principals & school representatives in a series of webinars conducted pan India with our partner schools. Most of the schools who’s infrastructure was in place immediately went online with their curricular and their extra curricular activities. Teachers were trained to handle classes digitally and to even manage online class decorum. This was something new for all teachers and students and the entire school ecosystem. As class time tables were put in place, a huge amount of time slots were given to School counselors to speak with children and to help them rid their anxiety about the pandemic and to deal with issues related to increased screen time.
We conducted over 20 Principal Meets, both at the Regional and at the National level. We interacted with over 150 principals through Zoom platform and got an understanding about how online schools would be conducted. Principals from schools all across the country joined in, some of them being Police DAV Public School, Jalandhar; Kendriya Vidyalaya IIT, Chennai; South City International School, Kolkata; University of Life, Sindhudurgh; International Public School, Bhopal; and Sri Sri Academy, Hyderabad.
Below are quotes of few principals about how they have been managing their students and entire school fraternity:
“We have organized online musicals and painting competitions. All of which were very enthusiastically participated in by children. We created competitions like Khelo Manibhai to excite the students.” Anjali Deo, Principal, Manibhai Gujrati High School, Amravati
“We started first with getting children meet each other online. Then we moved on with online Mothers Day celebration. From there on, we used hand puppets and break out rooms to keep children engaged online.” Mrs. Sunita Rajiv, Headmistress, Ahlcon International School, Delhi
Mrs. Manila Carvaliho, Principal, Delhi Public School, East Bangalore addressing the panel during the National webinar on Managing schools during Covidian times.
online schools for privileged children
“Our counselors have been in regular touch with children to assess the stress and anxiety levels amongst them.” Mrs. Manila Carvaliho, Principal, Delhi Public School, East Bangalore.
Millions of health care workers—physicians, nurses, technicians, other healthcare professionals, and hospital support staff who provide essential services have faced the challenge of providing care for patients during COVID-19. They have faced challenges of not being equipped properly and and many a times have risked their own lives to save the lives of others. In rural areas people have struggled with health issues due to lack of services and lack of primary health-centres. Smile Foundation health-care workers who begun travelling to remote rural areas during the pandemic report from the ground.
Dr. Anil Patel, Smile On Wheels, Chaibasa, Jharkhand
Lack of primary health-centres a problem for rural people
“It fills me with immense happiness when I am able to help children in any form. This time, it was about protecting them from the risk of catching communicable diseases that are on a rise during monsoons. Ensuring their safety by teaching them the use and necessity of wearing a mask, I feel I am able to protect them from harm. It is an empowering feeling not just for these children, but for me as well. It is moments like these that help me realise I am more than a health worker- I am also a caregiver.”
Dr. Sadan Kumar, Smile On Wheels, Chhattisgarh
Lack of Primary health-centres a problem for the poor
“Wearing PPE kits for all day long in a humid weather gets quite tiring. But when it comes to taking care of a pregnant women, or an elderly man walking with the help of a stick or even a small child complaining about fever, I forget about my own troubles. All my difficulties suddenly seem irrelevant when it comes to providing health services into remote communities in primary health-centres, where people have been struggling to receive basic health facilities since the lock down began. A smile or even a sigh of relief in return actually makes all my pain fade away.”
Dr. Manoj, Smile on Wheels, Gurugram
Lack of primary healthcare a problem for the rural poor
“Teaching children about healthy lifestyle is the best way to educate an entire community to safeguard their health by making it a priority. Working in remote corners and slum areas, we are spreading awareness regarding use of masks and sanitizers as the best ways to deal with the rapid increase in #Covid19 cases. And the kids are very responsive and enthusiastic. They learn from us, and pass it on to their elders. When I see this gradual change, I feel like my job as a healthworker is helping save more and more lives everyday.”
The youth may be far less susceptible health-wise to the Covid-19 virus, but they are not immune to the manifold and far-reaching adverse impact of the pandemic. According to a global survey of 15 to 24-year-olds by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), unemployment and managing mental well-being are the biggest concerns of the youth mitigating this difficult situation. And their concern is not without cause.
The economic crisis spurred by the pandemic is said to be worse than the great recession that rocked the world a decade ago. According to a Microsoft report, global unemployment in 2020 may reach a quarter of a billion people. The figures back home are no more encouraging. The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown measures led to an unprecedented rise in India’s unemployment rates, particularly during the months of April and May. The scenario is worst for youth, who make for the largest age-group wise segment in India’s workforce, as they face mass unemployment. According to data from the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) about 41% of people aged 15-29 were out of work in May; 27 million people aged 20-30 had lost their jobs in April. Even before the pandemic started, India’s economic growth was sluggish, and youth unemployment rates were record high.
Despite reports of the economy opening up and the overall unemployment rate dropping to pre-covid-19 levels, thousands of youth are still looking for a job in a market that may no longer have a space for them. The job market is undergoing a major transformation in the Covid era and so is the availability of jobs for the youth. Recently, while addressing the Digital Skills Conclave on the World Youth Skills Day, the PM emphasized on the need to “Skill, Reskill and Upskill” for surviving in the rapidly changing environment. Industry 4.0 had already brought a paradigm shift even before the pandemic with digital technology driving the job market. Covid-19 has only accelerated this process.
Skill Training to reduce unemployment
Skilling and education are central for enhancing the employability of the rising workforce, but they would become even more important following the pandemic. Employers are struggling to deploy people with the required skill set, whereas a huge number of displaced workers with limited skills are striving to regain livelihood. We, therefore, need to strengthen our skilling ecosystem today so as to enable workers to regain income and meet their career aspirations by securing quality jobs on the one hand and addressing the needs of employers and firms by providing them with the requisite talent for them to stay competitive on the other. While it is definitely important to provide a platform to the workers who have lost jobs to regain employment, it is equally important to address the persisting and ever-widening skill gaps in the job market.
One of the key steps for a successful and speedy economic recovery will be greater and inclusive access to the digital skills needed to fill newly available jobs. But technology is only a means to an end. In addition to digital skills, people-oriented soft skills remain as essential as ever – perhaps even more so given their durability at a time when technology continues to evolve at breakneck speed. The pandemic has highlighted the widening skills gap around the world which needs to be closed with even greater urgency to accelerate economic recovery. This calls for redoubled investment in skilling, ensuring that training reaches a wide population of youth with the greatest needs, making them gainfully employed.
Smile Foundation’s STeP programme is aligned to this objective and is working towards building a digitally skilled workforce from less privileged youth that is prepared to face the new world thrown open by the pandemic. More than 10,000 young women and men are currently undergoing training at over 70 STeP centres across India.
