Covid-19: Omidyar Network India announces ₹1 crore funding initiative

Investment firm Omidyar Network India on Friday announced a ₹1 crore funding to a collective of 20 grassroots civil society organisations as part of its rapid community response initiative to help vulnerable sections of the society who have been hit hard by the covid-19 pandemic.

This funding will help migrant workers and their dependents in rural areas by providing them information and counselling, and supporting those at starvation risk, channeling food and motivating frontline workers. The organizations will also conduct research to understand the impact of covid-19 in rural areas, and identify livelihood opportunities.

“Collaboration is the need of the hour to respond to the covid-19 crisis. The civil society organizations in this collective work across 12 states, have deep rural networks and can provide strong support to government efforts,” said Roopa Kudva, Omidyar Network India’s managing director.

The coalition has grassroots presence in 9,736 gram panchayats and can reach out to some 6 million vulnerable people, including tribal in over 100 districts of 12 states. “Augmenting the government’s admirable efforts, the National Coalition members will ensure food, cash, medicine, besides raising awareness about COVID-19 in the village community and psychological counselling. We hope to serve the people of India in this time of crisis,” said Ved Arya, founder of Srijan.

Omidyar’s rapid response funding initiative is looking at deploying a total of ₹7.5 crore to fast-track innovation and address urgent needs of vulnerable sections. Individual proposals for funding between ₹5 lakh and ₹2 crore will also be considered, it added.

This announcement is in line with the call for proposals made by the firm last week to tackle the challenges posed by the covid-19 situation as part of its rapid response funding initiative.