Navigating Adversity with Resilience
While some faltered in their fights, some still struggling to survive, some persevered with resilience, the covid-19 pandemic, which posed one of the greatest tests to the humankind the world has ever seen. Among many powerful, influential, inspiring and resourceful individuals, institutions and governments those who exhibited resilience to survive and leadership to support others in need with empathy and courage there are ‘survivor leaders’ too. The leaders who have survived through trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation and keep surviving through stigma, violence and exploitation, also survived through Covid-19 and supported their families and communities survive through adversity with profound leadership.
Vimukthi is one such survivor collective of survivors of human trafficking and sex workers which has been working towards the improvement of sex workers’ social and economic well-being, reduction in stigma and violence and life of dignity and respect for themselves and their future generation as part of the leadership next program with the mentoring support from an organization called HELP.
Sex workers are one of the most marginalized communities whose lives were worst hit with loss of employment leading to food insecurity and housing instability. The social stigma and exclusion exacerbated the risks of exploitation and violence from family, house owners, clients, mediators and law enforcement agencies. Stigma was heightened with some blaming sex workers for spreading the virus contributing to further social isolation.
Accessing the central and state government relief measured turned to be the brutal reality with lack of identification documents. In response to these economic challenges, many sex workers have been forced to take loans from the informal sources with exorbitant interest rates and exploitative terms posing themselves to increased vulnerability and debt bondage due to the lack of access to formal banking services and financial support programs.
Vimukthi leaders also experienced the similar struggles, many being the sole earning member or in some cases with little financial help, with no avenues to earn income, running out of savings, no access to government relief measures, they were pushed to starvation along with their dependents; children and elderly. The psychological distress also aggravated with many suffering with sever levels of stress, depression, anxiety. However their story continued exploring pathways to survive and make others survive. They leveraged on the relationships and networks they have been establishing with government and media stakeholders, communities, civil society, grassroots networks, NGOs and the international financer. Drawing upon their resilience they have harnessed mobilization, advocacy and lobbying skills to turn the structural barriers to an opportunity. They were moved and evoked by the struggles of many marginalized lives.
Like Vimukthi, members of BandhanMukthi, Utthan and Bijoyini survivors’ collectives belonging to North and South 24 Praganas districts of West Bengal, have also shown exemplary courage to fight against the challenges forced upon them by the Pandemic.
All these collectives, associated with Leadership Next programme, reached out for help to the funding organization expressing their survival challenges of socio-economic issues, physical and mental health challenges with lack of food, medical assistance and money to pay their rents and electricity bills, medical needs of the family members and sought for cash and kind support. They convinced the funding partners to provide them financial support to deal with their own challenges.
Apart from that they have also undertaken several crowdfunding initiatives within their capacity and skills, and partnered with a national level campaign initiated by ILFAT (Integrated Leadership Forum Against Trafficking) of which they were the founding members. With the support of Kamonohashi Project and Mojojojo, a digital marketing agency, they managed to raise more than 23 lakhs which they spent on supporting migrant workers and other vulnerable people in their respective communities. This has exhibited the exemplary qualities of leadership and empathy.
In Andhra Pradesh, Vimukthi leaders advocated with the government for issuance of rations cards for all the sex workers and demanded for free ration to sex workers without ration cards, which resulted into the government directing district administration to supply ration to all including sex workers during the emergency situation. The leaders were even invited by the district admiration to identify beneficiaries for Covid-19 relief support across Prakasam, Guntur, and Krishna Districts.
Resources have been mobilized locally with the networks established by HELP and Vimukthi from NGOs, PRIs, political leaders, church, influential individuals to extend the support services in distribution of vegetables and other essential medical supplies of sanitizers, masks and orienting the community members on the on COVID-19 precautions. They also mobilized resources through tier local networks and provided necessary medicine, supplementary nutrition for HIV-affected members, ART treatment, and support for LGBTQ+ individuals in their community.
Similarly in West Bengal, the survivor leaders with support from their mentoring organisations also carried out a needs assessment in their respective communities, advocated for ration cards for those who did not have the cards, demanded for free ration supplies under the State and Central schemes as well as other services for the families belonging to vulnerable communities. A drive taken to open Jan Dhan account as of now 44 Jan Dhan account opened.
Recognizing the need for digital communication in the wake of Covid-19 for the implementation of the program, maintain connectivity and communication with the partners, the collectives also requested and ensured the smart phones for leaders. Apart from that they learnt usage of other technologies like Zoom to keep in touch with each other and also networking with other stakeholders during the pandemic which barred them from physical movements.
In order to deal with the emotional distress, series of counseling sessions were organized with leaders and staff of mentoring organisations being trained on various mental health issues, collective efficacy, stress management, resilience building, emotional control and emotional intelligence, importance of physical and mental health fitness and leadership qualities which also helped survivor leaders to cope with the adversity, manage the personal life and program activities.
Few of the leaders have also identified temporary livelihood sources like selling food from home, running a fruit stall etc. to support themselves and the families in both the states.
Apart from that the leaders advocated for the double vaccination to ensure the members of their communities stay safe during the pandemic.