“Most of the people are doing backyard gardening in order to meet their daily needs and wants,” says Swashni Devi, a community health worker in the Reservoir Settlement, Tavua.
During the district convenings in Tavua last month, Devi shared the economic impact of COVID-19 felt by communities surround the town.
“I’m from Reservoir Settlement in Tavua, it is just a settlement, we don’t have farms and people mostly rely on working outside... backyard gardening seed assistance is also given by the Ministry of Agriculture but certain families are left out,” she said.
Devi said despite assistance through the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF), “everybody needs assistance and government should look into it”, including for social benefit programmes such as the bus fare scheme.
According to a statement made by Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Minister Mereseini Vuniwaqa in a Fiji Times report (5 September, 2020), ‘Government’s move to reduce bus fares for elderly citizens from $40 a month to $10 was a balancing exercise.’
The Minister says that of the 82,000 senior citizens on the programme, “average usage per month is about 52,000.”
“These days the busfare assistance have gone from $20 it has gone down to only $10 for the senior citizens which is kind of very hard for them to access to transport to go to town and hospitals,” said Devi.
The Fiji Times quoted the Minister saying, “At such a time as this, that is Government’s priority – to ensure that social pension which puts food on the table – remains at the same level.”
Unaisi Bakewa of the Tavua Disability Network said that with the pandemic, a lot of sacrifices have had to be made.
“People from the urban areas are moving back to the villages and we tend to see a distribution of resources,” Bakewa explained.
“What one family use to have...they have to share with two or three families now because of the lack of resources.”
Bakewa said that even though land is available, there is a lack of knowledge on how to utilise it adding “sometimes a lot of them they really have to come and learn, really learn the rural life.”
Irene Kumar, a member of the District Council of Social Services (DCOSS) Tavua network said these are issues faced and raised by women and therefore women must be recognized as being on the forefront.
“Our women are not in the picture. They work in the community and also at their home too but they are not recognised.”
Kumar said more opportunities need to be given to women to be part of formal decision-making spaces including in awareness campaigns.