Rag-Pickers and Their Young Children During COVID-19: Exploring Issues in Parenting and Feasible Social Work Response

Strict lockdown measures and the pandemic brought immense risks and misery to those already living on the margins of society before the COVID-19 crisis even hit the world. The present study was conducted with rag-pickers, one of the marginalized groups living in Jaipur city of India. The lives of these marginalized populations became more complicated during the pandemic. Due to movement restrictions during the lockdown, access to primary resources was further reduced — from water and sanitation to food, health, and employment, impacting the care and protection they could provide their young children. Rag-pickers, one of the most marginalized communities that face social stigma, struggled to cope with daily life challenges. Young children in such families suffered alongside their parents when the families could not continue their livelihood and lost all sources of income. This paper aims to deepen the understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on the nurturing care of children below eight years of age living in Jaipur, India, accentuating the human rights violations they face right from birth. Many humanitarian relief measures poured in during the lockdown period distributing free food packets and dry rations to the marginalized families. COVID-19 increased parenting challenges for this community. Protection of these families during the ongoing pandemic as well as future pandemics must become a strategic imperative. The paper enumerates feasible social work responses to the issues rag-pickers and their children confront.

Rag-Pickers and Their Young Children During COVID-19: Exploring Issues in Parenting and Feasible Social Work Response.

Strict lockdown measures and the pandemic brought immense risks and misery to those already living on the margins of society before the COVID-19 crisis even hit the world. The present study was conducted with rag-pickers, one of the marginalized groups living in Jaipur city of India. The lives of these marginalized populations became more complicated during the pandemic. Due to movement restrictions during the lockdown, access to primary resources was further reduced - from water and sanitation to food, health, and employment, impacting the care and protection they could provide their young children. Rag-pickers, one of the most marginalized communities that face social stigma, struggled to cope with daily life challenges. Young children in such families suffered alongside their parents when the families could not continue their livelihood and lost all sources of income. This paper aims to deepen the understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on the nurturing care of children below eight years of age living in Jaipur, India, accentuating the human rights violations they face right from birth. Many humanitarian relief measures poured in during the lockdown period distributing free food packets and dry rations to the marginalized families. COVID-19 increased parenting challenges for this community. Protection of these families during the ongoing pandemic as well as future pandemics must become a strategic imperative. The paper enumerates feasible social work responses to the issues rag-pickers and their children confront.

Vulnerabilities of the Rural Poor in India during pandemic COVID-19: Social Work perspective for designing sustainable emergency response.

Poor are vulnerable, frail, battered, marginalized, voiceless, and victim of multiple social circumstances. The complex vulnerable existence always made them suffer and become double victims of any disaster, be it natural, human-made, or biological like pandemic COVID-19. Poverty in India is an outfall of a number of complex social realities, historical past, and present doldrums. Restrictions due to lockdown and a shrinking economy, the job market as the immediate impact caused a number of survival crises for the rural families. The situation of rural poor becomes even more aggravated, as the reverse migration and influx of population increased the consumption and demand for jobs that actually the rural livelihood sector can provide. While the pre-existing vulnerabilities of the poor are exposed in the pandemic, the government's response toward them showed its restricted efficiency. The pandemic COVID-19 has taken human-life hostage and effective sustainable strategies to manage the crisis of the poor vulnerable section were essential for long-term resolution. Thus, the professional challenge ahead is designing a sustainable strategy of working in such pandemic situations that social workers are professionally skilled to handle similar challenges.