Sangita lives in Gogaipur village in Khalwa, Madhya Pradesh with her husband and in-laws. Since the couple did not own any land in the village. It compelled her family to migrate frequently to different cities in search of livelihood. During one of the surveys conducted by the Caritas India Sabal programme to initiate the livelihood programme as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic to support the migrant returnees and to provide job opportunities to the affected families; Sangita was identified as one of the beneficiaries qualifying for the initiative. The livelihood initiative was to identify the poor families which are the most deserving and are constrained to migrate due to lack of resources available in the village for surviving but have basic talents and skills that can help them to uplift their financial well-being but are unable to create it as an opportunity due to lack of or no financial resource to invest.

Sabal under its COVID-19 pandemic response identified 210 such deserving families and supported them financially to initiate livelihood opportunities. These livelihood opportunities included opening a petty shop, starting a tailoring, beauty parlour and juice centres, mobile repairing shop, automobile repairing centre etc. Sangita is one of such success story of Sabal which has paid off the family well to sustain the unanticipated second wave of COVID-19 which brought the whole country to a halt with another lockdown for 2 months and lack of opportunities for the families which extensively depended on the migration.

When the Sabal team visited the village the poshanmitra identified Sangita’s family as deserving the support. Further discussion with her revealed that before marriage she had been doing tailoring at her home but had to stop it after coming back to her husband’s home. She had also studied till 10^th and knew basic calculations and emphasized savings which was supported by her husband Madan as well. She wanted to do something on her own and did not want to migrate as she finds it very risky due to Covid. “Hume yaha rehne se kuch nhi milta isley bahar jana padta hai” (We don’t get anything here that is why we need to migrate). “Bimari ka bhi dar hai magar parivar bhi chalana hai” (We are afraid of getting infected, but we need to run the family). – said Sangita.

Considering her willingness to do something the team of Caritas India assured to support her in purchasing a sewing machine with a commitment that she will stay back in the village and continue her livelihood. On 18^th January, Sangita got her new sewing machine and started her shop in her own name “Sangita Silai Center” (Sangita Tailoring Centre). Within a couple of months, she earned ₹14,000, and with the savings brought by her husband, she also bought another machine and installed an electric motor to the machines. Her husband also stopped migrating and is supporting Sangita by also learning tailoring from her.

“Maine silai class bhi chalu kiya hai aur teen ladkiyan pass ki gav se seekhne bhi aati hai” (I have also started tailoring classes recently and three girls come to learn from nearby villages) – happily shared by Sangita. Sangita is charging ₹500 per student for the tailoring classes where she also provides raw materials to the girls for learning.

Even during the pandemic lockdown Sangita and her family did not migrate and survived as they got a monthly income of ₹4000 from the tailoring orders.