Kavita Gedam, the Covid warrior from Gadchiroli

Kavita Gedam, a resident of village Yevali, Gadchiroli block of Gadchiroli district; is a member of Annapurna SHG. She is one of the thousands of corona warriors of SHG trained by MSRLM who made a tremendous contribution in spreading awareness and other supports during the second wave of COVID-19.

Kavita Gedam, belonging to a middle-class family, depends on farming and their SHG business of apparel for their livelihood. To support her family, she learned stitching which enabled her to generate additional income. Later, the interventions of Umed-MSRLM provided a platform to capacitate herself in realising her skills and empowering her both socially and economically.

The covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns generated fear among people which eventually impacted in shutting down the businesses across the state. Also due to strict restrictions against public meetings, gathering, Marriages etc. the amount of work to be generated was lowered and hence the income from her business was fully stopped. This made difficult for addressing the basic needs of the family such as incurring for heath treatment, household activities, etc.

After approaching of second wave, the conditions became worse which affected the village areas. Like others Kavita and other around 2428 villages of her village were suffered in which 9 people were severely infected. Inadequate access to primary health care facilities and most of the family having less space and more numbers of members caused rapid spread of covid-19. The most important factor is poor literacy regarding government norms for covid-19 precautions and vaccination. 

Recognising the inaccurate awareness among the rural people, NRLM implemented Covid-19 Campaign across the country. “The training conducted by UmedMSRLM on Covid 19 awareness, appropriate behaviour and Vaccination has bridged gaps for me as well as my village to tackle the and controlled the spread of diseases in a more informed manner for which I am greatly thank full to the team”, says Kavita Gedam. Also, this enabled her to become a trainer herself and she contributed in creating awareness through wall painting and conducting training to the community while maintaining the necessary Covid -19 norms. She also became an aid for her family as well as her village by utilising her skills of tailoring and making masks. This resulted in generating income for her family and fulfilling needs of her children while also selling the mask at rate Rs. 20 per piece to district health department and made turnover of Rs. 1.26 lakh by Shop established by her and her SHG member with the help of Mission. The Mission provided Rs. 2.5 Lakh under Hirkani schemes.

She has proved herself on being an asset for mobilising the best practices and build awareness about accountability in one’s health care by educating the Covid -19 patients about the importance and necessity of institutional quarantine. Under this campaign, she along with her team member reviewed the present scenario and collected the real time data which helped district health department to take immediate actions upon the people not following the rules out of fear. This enabled the victims to recover under supervision of health care workers. She also motivated the family members of the victims to undergo RTPCR test and keep themselves in home quarantine to break the chain. With the help of VRF fund of Rs. 4000 from Jijau Gram Sangh, her team provided necessary food supplies to the Institutional quarantine centres.

Her team helped the health workers to manage to keep migrant population returning from outside states and distrcits for undergoing mandatory 14 days quarantine in Schools before their departure to their respective homes. In order to fight the prevailing uncertainties, Jijau Gramsangh supported for formation of kitchen garden in poor households to supplement their income. Sanitizers, Mask and medicines were also provided for maintaining healthy environment.

Kavita Gedam has now been chosen as a Gram panchayat member of her GP- Yavali considering her unconditional services and devotion towards the human kind. “The Umed- MSRLM provided me proper guidance which made me realise my potential and helped me to become a support for backing the future of my family and my village. This has motivated me to work more for my family and society which ultimately provides me lasting happiness and fulfilment”.

Source : Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM)