In what is considered to be one of the biggest mobilisations of the Kudumbashree Mission in the district since the pandemic, its gender development wing has launched week-long social fairs under the aegis of gender resource centres (GRCs).
The fairs, which were organised for three years, was held online last year owing to the pandemic. This year, the motto of the event is to reclaim normal life by overcoming the pandemic responsibly.
“The pandemic has inflicted untold financial misery on women, throwing a spanner in their livelihood, including their entrepreneurship initiatives run with the help of Kudumbashree. There is an inherent fear from which we aim to bail them out. We want to hand-hold them out of their situation through these fairs by showcasing various Kudumbahsree loans and schemes,” said Shine T. Money, District Programme Manager (Gender), Kudumbashree.
The physical and mental trauma of women who got infected by COVID-19 remains another major concern as many remain in the grip of insomnia and anxiety. The problems faced by children owing to continued exposure to online platforms like screen addiction are also being widely reported.
“We are trying to address these issues by roping in the help of primary health centres and local doctors along with community counsellors of our GRCs,” said Mr. Money.
The GRCs, meanwhile, are conducting a drive to increase the number of community counsellors in the district from the present 30 to 35 to further enhance their reach and service. At present, each counsellor is assigned three GRCs each and they hold a session for each one of them once in a week.
The social fairs are part of Kudumbashree’s efforts to take life to the pre-COVID times by activating the labour, educational, and cultural spheres in compliance with the health protocol. Fairs will also feature awareness seminars on COVID-19 prevention, yoga, gender debates, street plays and flash mobs, legal awareness classes, door-to-door campaigns, two-wheeler rallies and cultural programmes.
The GRCs, which are primarily aimed at resisting atrocities against women and children, have been functioning in 93 local bodies across the district under the Kudumbashree community development societies. They function as affiliated units of Snehitha, which doubles up as Kudumbashree’s help desk for women, and the District GRC. “GRCs try to address the problems faced by women and children locally and refer the ones beyond them to Snehitha,” said Mr. Money.
