Lives and Livelihood of people at Gunj: 2020

Dear Readers! As mentioned in my previous blog, "Life at Gunj", the population of Mccluskiegunj can be broadly classified into two categories. One that have immigrated to Gunj for earning their living by working in institutions like Don Bosco Academy, situated at Mccluskiegunj.

People falling into this category faced a lot of financial crisis as their major source of earning paused. Small proprietors earned no revenue during the lockdown. The sweet shop owners had no customer as the major chunk of customers are students who stay at hostels in Gunj. Even the crows and street dogs lost their weight, since the extra food of the hostel was their source of breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Since there were zero corona positive cases here, people used to go out and meet among each other on streets (By maintaining proper social distancing and wearing masks).

The best part of the day since everyone of us who met on the streets used to share about the pandemic situation, about the vaccines and trials performed all over the world. Women grieved upon the increased use of grocery, which eventually led to exceeding monthly budget. Unfortunately we miss this bond affinity towards each other in urban areas. I believe the more the bigger the city the bigger is the affinity gap between each other!

On the other side, I saw a transition in the lives of people living in the rural part of Gunj. Seasonal migrants chose the option of opening retail shops, with whatever capital they had. Ones those that left their traditional occupation of farming, gained back their roots. They started agriculture practices (on-farm and non-farm) and earned livelihood through selling these at local market (Bazar).

I have seen women who never used to step out of house for earning livelihood, have chosen to be a fruit vendor, work as a house helper, used their tailoring skills and started making bags out of old rags.

Though their scale of work is small, but I believe with the time to come worth the help of Government schemes and personal capital, they will set an example in society. Cheers to Empowerment!

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