‘Lifeline’ tech helps poor rural women get through India’s Covid-19 crisis

A villager receives a dose of a vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, during a door-to-door vaccination and testing drive at Uttar Batora Island in Howrah district in West Bengal state, India. — Reuters

MUMBAI/CHENNAI: Anajana Lalaji Bise’s precious last photograph of her husband is a picture he sent to her on WhatsApp a few days before he died from Covid-19 in a hospital in western India.

Bise had to quarantine at home after her husband, a farmer, was hospitalised last month, but she was able to stay in touch with him using a smartphone given to her by a local nonprofit to help her small snack business operate during the pandemic.