Our pandemic response: supporting...

Industree has seen with COVID-19 a huge reinforcement of it’s model that in it’s design, mitigated risks for most vulnerable populations.

Industree Foundation works on participatory processes, to create livelihoods for the underserved, in Creative Manufacturing vocations through formal work that keeps them as secure as possible, mentally and physically. This systemic thought has proven especially crucial during COVID-19. In India, 93% of the workforce are in the informal sector, undocumented, unacknowledged, lacking the assurance and security that the formal sector provides.  As a result of the country-wide COVID-19 lockdown, millions of these workers have found themselves unemployed as MSME’s terminated their jobs.  Now, India is seeing a mass migration as millions return home to their villages, unable to afford to stay in urban areas without the income that their informal work provided.

Industree, on the other hand, has moved thousands of artisanal producers from the informal sector to the formal sector and organized them into producer-owned cooperatives. Through the COVID crisis producer’s within these Coops, or Producer Companies as they are called in India, are secure. Thanks to the institutional support of the well managed Producer Company structure, thousands of artisanal producers are being looked after, in this period, both mentally and physically, with continued stipends and access to health insurance through the crisis, as well as work from home with Dignity.

During this pandemic, the heart of Industree's response lies in protecting producers directly linked to its existing ecosystem, and using its expertise in addressing wider communities. In addition to carrying out its already funded programmatic activities, through distance learning, and home based work, Industree has initiated Task Forces in three areas of focus- Lives, Livelihoods,  and Life after COVID-19: Business NOT as Usual.