People in rural India take loan, mortgage jewellery to combat Covid-19

Nearly one in four persons in rural India borrowed money for their expenses, 8% sold a valuable possession (phone, watch etc), 7% mortgaged jewellery, and 5% sold or mortgaged land and only one in five got jobs under MGNREGA, according to the first survey of rural India amid Covid-19.

About 25,300 respondents in 179 districts across 20 states and three union territories participated in the survey jointly conducted by rural media platform Gaon Connection and Lokniti, a research programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS).

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78% of respondents saw their work coming to a “complete standstill” or “a standstill to a large extent” during the lockdown. Skilled workers and manual (unskilled) labourers were the hardest hit. Work shut down completely for 60% skilled workers and 64% manual labourers.

Only 20% of respondents said they got work under MGNREGA in the lockdown. Chhattisgarh reported the highest percentage of such households at 70% followed by Uttarakhand (65%) and Rajasthan (59%). Gujarat and UTs of Jammu & Kashmir-Ladakh reported the lowest work under MGNREGA at 2% and 4%, respectively.

At least 23% of migrant workers returned home walking during the lockdown. Over 33% of migrant workers said they want to go back to the cities to work.

Some 42% of households with pregnant women said these women did not get pregnancy check-ups and vaccination during the lockdown. The lowest percentages were in West Bengal (29%) and Odisha (33%).

A face-to-face interview with dairy and poultry farmers suggested 56% of respondents are facing difficulty in taking their produce to the buyers; 35% said they did not get the right price for their produce.

The findings of the survey throw light on how the rural population, including migrant workers, survived possibly the longest nation-wide lockdown.

More than half the farmers managed to harvest their crops in time in the lockdown, but only one fourth could sell them on time.

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About 71% ration card-owning households said they received wheat or rice from the government during the lockdown. Of the 17% of citizens who do not own ration cards, only 27% said they received wheat or rice from the government.

At least 38% of the rural households reported having gone without necessary medicine or medical treatment often, during the lockdown. In Assam, 87% of rural households said they did not receive the required medical treatment followed by 66% in Arunachal Pradesh.

Despite all the hardship, at least 74% of the rural respondents said they were satisfied with the work the government was doing to combat Covid-19.