India: sanitation, safety and sustenance

We reported in March that we had sent funds to India to start a project building toilets in rural areas. This is not only for the sake of sanitation, but also for the safety of women. If they had to go to nearby fields in the early morning because of the lack of facilities they were in danger of attack. Violence against women is distressingly common.

And then just when we had sent the first funds for this, the project ground to a halt because of local Covid-19 lockdowns.

But now work has started again, and two toilet blocks have been completed so far. The first is in a village called Chahpur in Hathras District, Uttar Pradesh State with a population of 3,400.

The second toilet is also in a village in Uttar Pradesh. And work is now starting on two more in one of the tribal areas of the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

Meanwhile, the program to feed people who are out of work because of the Covid-19 emergency is carrying on. India now has the second highest number of confirmed cases in the world, after the USA. Experts fear that the actual total may be much higher than the numbers that have been confirmed, despite more than a million tests being carried out every day.