Ela R. Bhatt, long-time activist, founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a trade union in India, and also a founder of WIEGO, published an article in The Indian Express on May 6 in which she asks How do we build a society less susceptible to debt, disease, devastation?
She calls for an investment in the three basic human needs — food, water and shelter — along with primary basic services: healthcare, education, and banking that serve the well-being of societies. A concerted investment in these six things, she notes, is the way to create a post-pandemic society that is both sustainable and equitable.
“How well we cope with this crisis will depend on how we respond to local — not only global — realities, and how well we recover from the crisis will depend on how willing we are to reorganise our priorities when we rebuild.”