Moving Towards a New Normal

The outbreak of corona virus disease (COVID-19) has created a global health crisis that is having a vast and deep impact on the way we perceive our world. Every day, people are losing jobs, sources of income and hence access to basic amenities with no way of knowing when normalcy will return. This article focuses on the response of the Development Alternatives (DA) Group to the pandemic by throwing light on how various programmes have been halted, reinvented and taken forward in the midst of the pandemic.

• E-Learning platforms have been initiated - WhatsApp groups, website based training and zoom call training.

• Digitisation of content for orientation and counselling.

• Direct relief and support to target groups and vulnerable communities - distribution of dry ration, cooked meal and PPE kits to frontline workers.

• Village level disinfections have been carried out.

DA initiated a discussion with it’s partners to carry out project implementation according to the situation arising due the pandemic. Following activities have been conducted:

• Distribution of cooked food along with basic hygiene kits in Delhi-NCR region for a period of twenty days during lockdown while making the beneficiaries aware of the corona pandemic through awareness drives and hand washing training.

• Protective gear namely masks, sanitisers and soaps were distributed at 16 urban shelters.

• Children of the waste-picker community were given tablets of vitamin C to strengthen their immune system. In some cases, volunteers provided first aid support as well.

• Disinfection of village Tilapta in Dadri was done by spraying hydrochloride solution within a radius of 1 km area in the month of April.

• Cooked meal and dry ration distribution to truck drivers and helpers at different locations. Maersk and HUL came forward for designing appropriate relief and support interventions for truck drivers (as all the operations were halted including transportation services and the drivers stranded at the depots during lockdown).

• Provision of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) Kits to doctors and health care workers in government hospitals.

The activities mentioned above were carried out in proper compliance with the government advisory keeping in mind the precautions to be taken. Necessary permissions were obtained from the concerned local government authorities for movement within the city.

There is still much needed to be done in order to be part of the ‘new normal’. Going forward, DA along with its partners is committed to responding to this global pandemic in a more proactive manner and reaching out to the target groups in innovative ways. ■

Vishakha Mittal
vmittal@devalt.org