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Emergency relief support for vulnerable Dalit & Adivasi families in Madhya Pradesh

Under the EU Supported Muktee Project

The country-wide lockdowns enforced to curb the spread of the COVID 19 pandemic have had devastating consequences for the lakhs of migrant workers stranded in big cities such as Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. Overnight men and women working as contractual labour on construction sights, in manufacturing units, small restaurants and dhabas, tea shops, those working as domestic workers and rikshaw pullers have lost their livelihood. With little or no access to social security, food supplies, proper sanitation and no place to stay, these people remain extremely vulnerable during this crisis. 

Under the EU supported ‘Muktee’ project, implemented across 4 Districts of Madhya Pradesh, Traidcraft Exchange along with its partner Jansahas is working with Dalit and Adivasi families at risk of bondage and slavery. 

Over the last month, our teams have been closely monitoring the impact of the pandemic on vulnerable Dalit and Adivasi families in the region. A rapid assessment of the situation of 3196 migrant families revealed certain key challenges and areas of urgent action. 

  1. Migrant workers currently face a greater risk of contacting the COVID 19 Virus due 

to poor access to sanitation facilities and nutritious food. 2. Due to the acute shortage of food supplies, several households have resorted to taking loans to meet their daily food needs. This puts them at severe risk of forced and bonded labour in the near future. 3. While the central and state governments in India have declared various schemes to support vulnerable workers during this difficult period, these schemes have not reached communities as they remain unaware of how to avail these benefits. 

A free helpline number for workers in crisis established under the project received over 7000 calls in the first 25 days. As an immediate relief measure, our on-ground teams have supported 240 vulnerable families with food supplies for 45 days along with a basic safety kit containing masks and sanitizers.

Pawan Kashyap

Business Associate

Pawan works at Traidcraft India as Business Associate. He is a development professional with 4 years’ experience of working on livelihood having expertise in sustainable agriculture supply chain, social enterprise development & Women, economic empowerment.

He is an MBA in Rural Management from Xavier Institute of Social Service (Rural Marketing as specialized subject). Previously he has work with BIRSA, a social organization on Forest Rights, Livelihood & Sustainable agriculture in Jharkhand

Subodh Kumar

Sr. Business Associate

Subodh works at Traidcraft India as a Sr. Business Associate. He is a young development professional with 6 years of experience. Subodh is an Agriculture graduate from Allahabad Agriculture Institute, Allahabad, Master’s in Development Management from Tata Dhan Academy, Madurai and Post Graduate Certificate in International Organization Management from the University of Geneva. Prior to joining Traidcraft, Subodh has worked with TechnoServe India and Aga Khan Rural Support Program India. Subodh holds expertise in Institution building, capacity building, sustainable agriculture, value-chain development, and market linkages of the various agriculture crops. He has worked in various states including Gujarat, Maharashtra, MP, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha.

Priyashri Mani

Associate Consultant

Priyashri Mani is the Associate Consultant (Women’s Economic Empowerment) in Traidcraft India. She has 10 years of experience in the development sector working with marginalised communities in the areas of livelihood, women’s empowerment, and indigenous people’s rights. She has a Masters’ degree in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) University of Sussex, UK and a Bachelors’ (Hons) in Sociology from Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi University.

Jyoti Prakash

Market Engagement Expert

Jyoti Prakash works with Traidcraft as Market Engagement Expert and has more than 15 years of experience in strategy formulation, implementation and management of “Livelihoods, Enterprise development & Market Engagement” projects. His professional strengths include conceptualising and facilitating implementation of innovative strategies and methodologies in the areas of Livelihoods , Enterprise promotion, Market Engagement, Value Chain Development, Institution Building and Development Research.

Rohan Preece

Manager – Business and Human Rights

Rohan Preece is the Manager – Business and Human Rights at Traidcraft India. He has around 15 years of experience across private sector, government and third sector contexts in India, including work with youth, in India and the UK. He has worked on gender-related monitoring and evaluation and documentation assignments for a range of organisations including Save the Children India and, while at Praxis-Institute for Participatory Practices. In his work with Partners in Change, he led a number of projects on business and human rights and corporate responsibility. His work contributed to the establishment of Fair Finance India, a civil society coalition that engages constructively with the financial sector. He has experience of addressing human rights issues in factory settings and in supply chain settings in India and of working with grassroots organisations. His sectoral engagement experience in India encompasses the financial sector, textiles and apparels, footwear and electronics. He holds a MA (Hons) degree from the University of Cambridge and a University of London MA in education and international development.

Dipankar Sengupta

Supply chain expert

Dipankar Sengupta is the supply chain expert at Traidcraft and has a PGDABM (Post Graduate Diploma in Agribusiness Management) from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a PGDRD (Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Development) from Xavier Institute of Social Service. Before joining Traidcraft he worked with Rallis India where he focused on creating agri-solutions. His work experience includes assignments at Bayer CropScience Limited and Tata Chemicals.

Maveen Pereira

Director programme

Maveen Pereira has over 35 years of development experience working at different levels from grassroots to senior management.  As the Director programme, Traidcraft Exchange, she leads strategic planning, program development and management across South Asia and East Africa. Having worked directly with workers, small producers, she has a sound knowledge of the challenges faced by them in their bid to access markets sustainably.  She helped launch the first Fair Trade label in India – Shop for Change – using a multi-stakeholder approach. Prior to joining Traidcraft, she was faculty in the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She is a graduate from TISS and holds a PhD in Sociology from University of Mumbai.