While COVID-19 posed a threat to the rural economy and people on various fronts, it also brought newer opportunities that could help to grow the rural economies.
As a measure to contain the virus, India declared a lockdown on 24 March 2020 for 1.3 billion people with the prime minister calling for joint action by people, not-for-profits, corporates, and governments. The complete lockdown in the country significantly impacted the quality of life and livelihoods of people. Considering that there has been a historical divide between rural and urban India with regard to the essential infrastructure for Health, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), supply chains, and other important services, the impact of COVID-19 was far more alarming for the rural community.
India witnessed an unprecedented and massive reverse migration of people from cities back to their rural roots considering that there were great uncertainty and loss of livelihoods that forced a large number of labourers to migrate. The system was not prepared for such large-scale migration and soon there were thousands of people walking on the roads. With such a large number of people trying to get back to their hometown the risk of the virus spreading in the rural areas heightened.
Source: Financial Express
