Originally published here.

COVID-19 is a task for public health systems and a test of the human spirit. Recovery will lead to a society of greater equality, more adaptive to future crises. For several nations, economic stimulus programs and emergency steps to challenge public health problems were placed to reduce the COVID-19 impacts. It is important to place women and girls in all the national responses, its inclusion, equality, freedoms, social and economic progress, equality and security with the required impact. The pandemic highlights pre-existing differences, raising gaps in social, political, and economic structures that increase the pandemic's impact on women working in MSME. We built from the results to argue that COVID-19 represents a crisis for microfinance in low-income communities.

The impacts on COVID-19 exceptionally agreed that women take on higher care demands at home, cuts and lay-offs would also adversely affect their work. Such impacts risk rolling back the already participation of women in the labor force, limiting the capacity of women helped the family, especially for women-headed households, that have seriously impacted women's livelihoods and economic security. While women will step in to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, they are not indefinitely elastic about the wage labour they provide. Despite sufficient funding, the long-term cost of extending labour work to cover up the gaps in social security and the delivery of public services can be high.

So urgent action is needed to ensure continuity of treatment for those in need and to consider unpaid families Community careers as critical workers in this crisis. The Indian Government has collaborated with SHGs to provide community-based responses to the pandemic and lockdowns in many states. Approximately 12,000 community kitchens have been developed, for example, in states where SHGs have a strong link with local Government, including Bihar, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Tripura. SHGs also provide essential items via doorway distribution, such as dry ration and food delivery by Mission Shakti SHGs in Odisha. Groups have also been mobilizing to manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks, to compensate for the shortages and secure members' livelihoods. SHG members coordinated within the NRLM developed millions of masks and PPE and liters of hand sanitizer.

As the fastest growing economy, we should raise awareness of the MSME sector and concentrate on generating more employment, improving industrialization, decreasing imports, rising exports, technology upgrading, competitive companies, market development, wealth creation and economic growth. By registering and using MSME benefits and schemes, growth can be achieved the economies of scale. A pandemic is exacerbating and increasing all existing inequalities. Those inequalities, in turn shape what is affected, the severity of that impact, every response plan for COVID-19, and every recovery package and resource budgeting need to address the gender impacts of this pandemic. This means putting women and women's organizations at the center of the response to COVID-19; Putting women and girls at the center of economies will drive better and more sustainable development outcomes for all.

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