Covid-19 lockdown: Beed women raise ₹75L to aid field workers, families

A non-profit organisation run by 300 rural women in Maharashtra’s Beed district has raised ₹75 lakh through various organisations, to help sugarcane workers and

A non-profit organisation run by 300 rural women in Maharashtra’s Beed district has raised ₹75 lakh through various organisations, to help sugarcane workers and their families.

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Navchetana Sarvangin Vikas Kendra (NSVK) in Beed is run by women and works with Dalit communities, nomadic and de-notified tribes, landless labourers, abandoned women and migrant sugarcane cutting communities around Beed.

So far, it has reached out to 7,000 families across 300 villages as part of its relief efforts during the lockdown.

Manisha Ghule, founder of NSVK, said, “This year, thousands of sugarcane returned [to their villages] owing to the lockdown and were ostracised by other villagers who feared they may have contacted the disease.”

NSVK took immediate steps to provide ration, medical and hygiene needs to the families in need, she said.

NSVK is now looking at raising money through crowd-funding to reach out to another 3,000 families in Beed.