Reigniting Hope

Ainla Jani lost all her savings, and her husband lost his job during the second wave of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown. She lives in Cahanabada village (Kalahandi, Odisha) with her family of three (her husband and a son), and like many other families of the region, belongs to the Scheduled Tribe. Her husband is a mason but could not find any work even after the lockdown. Being landless, the family was going through the worst financial crisis of their lives but Ainla did lose hope. Under the conditional cash transfer initiative of IGSSS, she was identified by the village development committee and received ten thousand rupees for livelihood restoration. Ainla borrowed another ten thousand from the bank and bought a multi-grain grinding machine. In her and nearby villages, no such facility was available. People usually went miles to faraway towns to grind their produce. Her grinding machine can grind wheat, millet, dry red chilli, turmeric, and rice. She charges Rs. 5/- for grinding per kg of products. She has started just now and is hopeful to expand her enterprise in the coming months.