ABSTRACT
India’s capital, Delhi, has skyscrapers, bungalows and unauthorised bastis/slums. The author live in one such basti known as Gandhi camp situated near popular Okhla mandi (mandi means a wholesale vegetable and fruit market). In this basti, many families are daily wage labourers and their livelihood is fully dependent on the mandi. The children’s cooperatives programme run by Butterflies is close to my heart as it has seen us as active agents rather than objects. Every aspect of this programme gives an opportunity to children and adolescents to assess their needs, devise solutions, and shape strategies and carry them out. When Covid-19 first appeared, he could use the cooperative approach to help families in dire need. Covid-19 has robbed families of their livelihood and daily wages, even his family was one of them. All were worried about where their next meal would come from.
