How collaboration is key to India’s response to COVID-19

In rural Maharashtra, India, seven hours from Mumbai, queues for COVID-19 testing and hospital beds are growing every day. For social entrepreneurs like Chetna Sinha, Founder and President of Mann Deshi Bank and Mann Deshi Foundation, the situation is beyond heartbreak. “We don’t know when the vaccines will come … We have a local saying the sky has burst – we’re trying to fix it with little pieces – it’s a bad situation.

With around 2,000 people testing positive in this small district each day, Sinha says they are trying “very calmly” to focus on what they can as India is engulfed in its second murderous wave.

Normally, Mann Deshi works to support and empower women in the district, helping them access finance, develop skills and identify markets for longer-term system change. But during the pandemic – like so many other social purpose organizations – he worked tirelessly to provide COVID-19 relief, from providing food packages and making masks to building a COVID hospital. of 300 beds in partnership with HSBC and the district government. . They also renovated an unused rural hospital, turning it into a free facility dedicated to COVID. In the past six months, thousands of people have benefited from it.

It’s a story unfolding all over India – and even the rest of the world. In a time when governments and health systems have been overwhelmed, social entrepreneurs have mushroomed by the thousands to fill in the gaps. Most of these entrepreneurs are making a difference in the so-called last mile; places where logistical and operational difficulties prevent services from reaching mainly poor or rural communities. Under-served and neglected at best, these marginalized populations are extremely vulnerable during this second wave.

Social entrepreneurs are perhaps best placed to play this role for several reasons, the least of which is that many of them were on the ground and in position long before the pandemic hit, making them local resources. of confidence. Founded in 1996, Mann Deshi, for example, is part of the fabric of the district, so much so that Sinha was asked to be one of the first to publicly receive the vaccine in order to encourage others to do the same.

Social purpose organizations are also, by their nature, innovative and agile. They were often created to solve a specific challenge. Glocal Healthcare Systems, for example, has worked to address the fact that around 28% of India’s population does not have access to a doctor, a particularly serious problem in rural and remote areas.

To do this, they have set up a network of digital clinics across the country that combine an exam room, test lab and pharmacy and are run by a nurse using digital diagnostic tools with assistance. away from a doctor, if necessary. It’s a simple, cost-effective solution that has helped provide healthcare to thousands more citizens since 2010. “For the equivalent of about $ 4, you get a doctor, your tests, and your medication.” says Azim Sabahat, CEO of Glocal.

The system has been extremely effective but, says Sabahat, it has not yet evolved enough to be able to cope with the speed and ferocity of India’s second wave. “We were convinced by the solution, but too slow compared to the virus,” he says. Nonetheless, Glocal is doing what it can, including rushing to open two new hospitals – one in Delhi and one in Kolkata – in the next 30-45 days with 100-200 intensive care / HDU beds each.

Meanwhile, at all of its existing hospitals, teams are working to expand COVID beds and intensive care facilities, while trying to add oxygen plants, pipelines and oxygen concentrators. They have also launched a free telemedicine COVID counseling center accessible by phone, online and through apps, which they hope will help prevent panic and alleviate some of the burden on the healthcare system by providing screening, counseling, and health care. correct triage and treatment of patients.

The situation can be overwhelming, says Sabahat, but that doesn’t mean they give up hope or lose heart. “Most of our people are on the ground fighting a dark battle. We will always do whatever we can … The battle is never lost until we give up.

Such resilience in the face of crisis is a common trait among social entrepreneurs. They are, in many ways, trained for combat and used to coping with little to accomplish great things. This often means that they have become exceptionally well networked and able to bring people together when and where they are needed most.

For example, Creative Dignity, a collective created by India’s leading craft skills development organizations and master craftspeople in response to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, is finding ways to protect – and even create – jobs in the informal sector.

In India, 93% of the economy is in the informal sector, where people have little or no income protection. This means that when the pandemic hit, most lost their livelihoods overnight. Creative Dignity responded by mobilizing a network of 500 student volunteers to help artisans create e-commerce sites, allowing them to sell their products online.

Neelam Chhiber, co-founder of Fondation Industree and founding member of Creative Dignity, explains that the group then used their collective voice to engage the private sector and government to build a unique solution. This involved a major global retailer renouncing its no-home work-from-home policy for suppliers, which was in place to guard against child labor, and pledging to purchase products from the collective during lockdowns.

This has secured the livelihoods of more than 10,000 women over the past year. And now, in the grip of the second wave, Chhiber says they are making plans for the future, identifying ways to scale this initiative forward and capitalize on what she believes is a wave of sustainable consumption to worldwide. Chhiber stresses that the complexity of this solution means that it is not something that a single actor could have achieved alone.

“It’s all about partnerships, not only between social entrepreneurs, but also between donors and governments.”

Indeed, the inspiring work of social entrepreneurs in India during the second traumatic wave shows us that a radical new mindset and collaborative approach are needed to drive transformative change. And these smaller, local, innovative and above all more agile players are showing that they have a crucial role to play. What could the world look like if we chose to magnify the impact of these very effective local actors?

These social entrepreneurs need as much support as possible to sustain their activities and continue to provide essential services to vulnerable populations. And beyond the crisis, we must find ways to better integrate them into economies and societies in order to build resilience and find more sustainable lifestyles. As Chetna Sinha says, it’s an imperative that goes beyond philanthropy, it’s about our very survival: “It’s about being a part of you – it’s not doing something for them. – it’s for all of us. “

This is part of a series of articles published by the World Economic Forum’s COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs on India’s response to the second wave of COVID-19. The Alliance is hosted by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and includes 86 social entrepreneurship leaders who collectively support around 100,000 entrepreneurs. Ashoka and Catalyst 2030 are both members and strategic partners of the Alliance. Their COVID support page can be found here.