MUMBAI/CHENNAI, India — A najana Lalaji Bise's
precious last photograph of her husband is a picture he sent to her on WhatsApp
a few days before he died from
COVID-19 in a hospital in western India.
اضافة اعلان
Bise had to quarantine at home after her husband, a farmer,
was hospitalized last month, but she was able to stay in touch with him using a
smartphone given to her by a local nonprofit to help her small snack business
operate during the pandemic.
India's COVID-19 crisis has exposed a wide digital divide,
prompting many grassroots groups to focus on connecting poorer women without
internet access to healthcare and financial support, or simply to help them
keep in contact with loved ones.
"I didn't know about WhatsApp or video calling
before," Bise told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from her home in
Nimbhore village in Maharashtra, one of the states worst-affected by India's
second coronavirus wave.
"If not for this mobile, I wouldn't have been able to
see my husband," the 42-year-old mother-of-two said, her voice cracking
with grief and still weak from the effects of the disease.
COVID-19 has killed nearly 390,000 people in India and infected
almost 30 million, according to official data, but experts think the real
numbers are likely much higher.
The deadly second wave, which peaked in April and May, left
the health service on its knees.
In desperation, many turned to social media to track down
hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, and medication, while others used coding
skills to grab rare vaccine slots on registration websites.
India has one of the world's widest digital gender gaps,
with only a third of women owning a mobile compared to two thirds of men,
according to a 2018
Harvard University study.
But the divide is far greater for poor rural women, who are
also much less likely to have digital literacy skills, according to Chetna
Sinha, founder of Mann Deshi, an organization which works to empower rural
women.
Cut off
Grassroots campaigners say smartphones can be instrumental
in helping women — giving them greater autonomy and access to services and
information.
Mann Deshi, which has given phones to rural women in western
Maharashtra's Satara district, said the devices have helped them survive
financially during the pandemic.
After receiving her phone, Jyoti Devkar, 25, quickly learnt
how to create a Facebook page for her computer parts shop in Banpuri village,
post photos of her products and accept online payments.
When she was hospitalized with COVID-19 some 15km from her
home, Devkar was able to keep her business going while recovering.
"I stayed in touch with my family back home on video
calls," she said. "But staying in a ward full of patients was
distressing so I continued working. It kept me sane."
While most men isolating with the virus can easily keep in
touch with family, Sinha said the lack of a phone left many quarantining women
completely cut off.
"We initially provided smartphones to help rural women
keep their businesses going during the pandemic, but we then realized how
important a phone was to help them connect with their families during lockdown
and quarantine," she said.
Across the country, many social enterprises like Mann Deshi
— companies, nonprofits and community groups that aim to make the world a
better place — have rapidly pivoted their operations to plug gaps in the
national response.
Mann Deshi, which founded a bank for rural women in 1997 and
provides training in business skills, has helped build a 300-bed COVID-19
hospital and is working with others to provide oxygen, beds, ventilators and
medication to the sickest.
'Lifeline'
Other social enterprises have set up hotlines to help
marginalized communities in areas where the nearest health center may be far
away.
"Sometimes women call and hang up, scared to talk about
themselves," said nurse Mansi Dwivedi, who monitors the HelloSwasti
helpline run by public health nonprofit Swasti Health Catalyst.
"Most don't have their own phone and can't find a
private space in their crowded homes to talk freely. But when they call, it
means they desperately need help."
Inquiries include questions about the vaccine,
pandemic-related stress and job losses, lack of medicines for chronic diseases
like diabetes, and domestic abuse, which has spiked during lockdowns.
Swasti arranges phone consultations with doctors,
prescription deliveries and sends community workers to check on callers who may
need referring for specialized care.
It also helps pregnant women who have been unable to attend
check-ups due to lockdowns or who have run out of iron supplements to prevent
anemia, which affects half of pregnant women in India and is a major cause of
maternal death.
Widow Kiran Bajaj, 53, who struggled to cope when she was
self-isolating with the virus at home in central Madhya Pradesh state, said the
practical tips and support she received from the helpline calls were a
"lifeline".
Grassroots organizations are also providing women with
oxymeters to monitor oxygen levels, connecting them to diagnostic facilities,
and paying for tests — a prohibitive cost for many — to ensure those infected
get the right treatment.
Nonprofit SEEDS, which helps India's poorest people, has
established COVID-19 care centers for marginalized communities and a hotline to
help them source everything from hospital beds to oxygen.
SEEDS co-founder Manu Gupta said women had often been
brought to hospital later than men, by which time their symptoms were more
serious.
Daily coronavirus cases are steadily falling, but Gupta now
fears the digital divide could put millions of poor, including rural women, at
the back of the vaccination queue.
With India requiring people to register for their jab via a
smartphone app or website, Gupta urged the government to work with civil
society and community organizations to reach those lacking access to
technology.
SEEDS is sending teams door-to-door to encourage people to
get jabs and help them register.
"We tend to leave out the most vulnerable whenever we
have a large-scale response to a crisis - and then society's inequalities
become even more pronounced," Gupta said.
"We're trying to make sure nobody gets left
behind."
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