THE IMPLICATIONS OF COVID-19 FOR RURAL INDIA- A STUDY

ECONOMICS

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the entire nation to a halt. Health officials and medical professionals are struggling with containing the disease, and testing and treating affected people. Last night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a three-week, nation-wide, complete lockdown to contain the spread of this virus, as the number of reported positive cases in India crossed 10 lakh. Corona virus scare has kept the health ministry on its toes. As on Friday, 31 positive cases of Covid-19 have been reported so far in India, fortunately with no deaths. While the government is trying to ensure enough steps to prevent corona virus from entering the country, there has been a flood of unverified claims suggesting a cure to end the epidemic. One such claim was made by a Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav who said that villages are safe from corona virus and that the epidemic is mostly spreading in cities’. In response to urgent needs of cash-strapped families on the ground, on March 22, 2020, we launched the “Support COVID-19 hit families” mission to provide direct-benefit-transfer as financial assistance to daily wagers and migrant laborers who had lost their jobs due to the COVID lockdown. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has issued state-wise guidelines for farmers to be followed during the lockdown period. The advisory mentions specific practices during harvest and threshing of various rabi (winter sown) crops as well as post-harvest, storage and marketing of the farm produce.

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