Since the first lockdown in 2020 to today, more than 200 million employees in India have lost their jobs or been reintegrated into the so-called informal economy. 47% of women since March 2020 have not found a stable job, compared to about 9% of men. About a third of young workers under the age of 24 have lost their economic livelihood.
Today the Indian population aged 0 to 14 is 370 million, so 247 million are elementary and middle school students. The use of online lessons during the pandemic created a gap between who could access and who could not (at least 12%). A United Nations report hypothesizes that about 23 million and 800 thousand elementary and middle school children are at risk of dropping out of school due to the economic crisis, thus re-entering the child labour circuit.
LIGHT FOR THE FUTURE
COVID-19 IN INDIA
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
MKT received a call to action from the Indian authorities of the Vijayawada district where the children of 864 families from April to May lost one of their parents, almost always the father (87% of cases). MKT immediately take concrete initiatives aimed at protecting children, defending gender equality and allowing real support to the communities. The loss of a loved one is in itself a traumatic and painful event and we can only imagine what it may have been like for children to watch helplessly as their parents die. Therefore, the effort is focused on orphans and widows. The response to the first emergency was therefore to provide food parcels to the neediest families.
POST COVID-19: A CONCRETE HELP FOR WOMEN
The condition of women in India is still extremely vulnerable: girls are often forced to interrupt their studies, forced to early marriage (the percentage of early marriages is still very high), they have to take care of the family, they often suffer abuse and violence. The condition of widows is even worse: they are removed from their families, seen as a burden and a sign of bad luck, for this reason they are even more marginalized. That’s why we’ve decided to support the widows of Covid-19 through the provision of tools that allow women to start micro-economic activities, alleviating the precariousness of their jobs and being autonomous and independent, managing to support their families.
POST COVID-19 CHILD SUPPORT
Without concrete help to their families, these children are at risk of school dropout and, worse, becoming victims of trafficking and forms of slavery such as child labour, early marriage or sexual exploitation. This cannot be allowed to happen. Through distance support it is possible to support orphaned children of the covid. MKT has launched, with the support of its partners and in concert with the relevant government bodies, a school dropout prevention program for the children of 100 families in the Vijayawada area, guaranteeing them the right to education.
