How The Covid19 Pandemic Hit Rural India Differently: More Than A Challenge

How The Covid19 Pandemic Hit Rural India Differently : More Than A Challenge

With an estimated death toll of 4 million people and more, India was one of the worst-hit nations from the coronavirus pandemic, which led to the collapse of the world order in 2020. Healthcare systems, all across the globe, have shattered and proved insufficient and now, more than ever, the effects of lower sanitation levels have been felt in a third-world country like ours. Especially the scary effects of Covid19 in rural India; a new challenge, which emerged from this global mess.

Despite the best doctors, the best medical care, and life-saving institutions being present across the country, the effects have been devastating in places where healthcare is limited, and cleanliness is by no means a priority. We’re talking sanitation in Indian villages and rural establishments.

Beyond Urban Centres

Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala were the worst-hit states of India but merely counting cases in metropolitan cities isn’t the viable solution, which can offer us respite from the virus. Why? Because the numbers don’t represent the complete story. While urban centres and cities were quick to report official figures, the impact of Covid19 in rural India was never seriously monitored, reported, or analyzed.

For example: While Mumbai cautioned their citizens and controlled the surge in cases, Amravati (a suburb 190 km away from Nagpur) is one of the worst affected districts in the entire state. Yet, with limited dispensaries and hospitals, only a fraction of cases will ever be reported officially.

Similarly, reports claim despite 35% of all cases in Haryana coming from rural areas, the numbers reported are severely lower than the actual count.

New Challenges Emerge in Rural India due to Coronavirus

If living in your 3-room flat, in isolation, is a problem for you or your family, imagine doing that in a kaccha (semi-solid) establishment in a remote village of Uttar Pradesh or Haryana. With one doctor/dispensary to treat an average village count of 13,000 and beyond, the conditions worsened with the coronavirus pandemic.

If not the ordinary sanitation in rural Indian villages, then the problem of limited testing centres and an ever-so-stagnant vaccination drive has surely killed any hope in the rural sectors.

Limited or No Testing Centers: Once the wave travelled deep into our country’s rural pockets, there was no going back! After a majority of Indian villages reported symptoms and signs of catching the coronavirus, the struggle against time had already started.

With more deaths every day, healthcare facilities – which were incompetent even before the pandemic arrived – were now flattened.

Limited or No Immunity: If someone told you villages were less likely to get affected by the virus, then it was another hoax passed on to you because that’s just not the case it seems in India.

Many patients who recovered reported symptoms of black fungus, and other such post-covid complications. To add to their misery, the unavailability of hospitals and doctors meant long travel, sometimes people falling short or dying while on their way for treatment. Covid19 in rural India is, so far, a threat too complex to handle.

With vaccination the only hope left for humanity to rekindle and recover, it must be seen how long it takes before rural sectors develop a herd immunity.

While experts quarrel and debate about a time frame, everyone agrees that raising basic awareness and improving sanitation levels in urban, as well as rural areas, is a must.

You can read about the effects of the coronavirus on our country’s different states, and their rural sections, in the next instalment of this series.

About

We are team of self motivated individual with an aim is to create a model for development that can be replicated at scale across India and the world.