The COVID-19 pandemic has affected most countries in the world. India is among the top three affected nations. Although urban areas were affected first and hit harder, rural India has not remained untouched by the pandemic. Now the COVID-19 cases are increasingly getting reported from semi-urban and rural areas which are particularly vulnerable due to inadequate health services and lack of media attention. The pandemic has impacted rural community in more than one ways. During the lockdown agricultural operations closed due to lack of labour, inputs, transportation and off take of produces leading to loss of income among farmers. Migrant workers from rural areas working in urban locations lost their livelihoods and most of them shifted back to their villages bearing all kinds of hardships resulting in increased unemployment in rural areas. Rural artisans could not sell their artefacts, poor and destitute found it difficult to meet their both ends. Government of India announced economic revival package of Rs. 20 lakh crores including Rs. 1.70 lakh crores as part of Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Yojana to mitigate the hardship faced by people and to revive economy and businesses. Union and State Governments , district administrations, Panchayats, Civil Society Organisations have come together to halt spread of COVID-19 in rural India and minimise its adverse impact. This book has chapters based on analytical and empirical studies on impact of COVID-19 on various dimensions of rural India, contributed by experienced scholars and practitioners from across the country. Chapters describe challenges,opportunities and responses and also prescribe policy and operational measures to enable rural community deal with this crisis better and to be prepared for any such disaster in future. Book will be very useful to scholars , media persons , researchers and policy makers interested in rural development and also disaster management.
Dr. Rajesh Kumar Sinha is working as Assistant Professor with NIRD&PR,Hyderabad. He holds Ph.D. degree from JNU, New Delhi with UGC- Senior Research Fellowship in Public Administration. His research interests lie in rural local governance, rural development, social audit, social accountability and capacity building. He has worked with UNDP,MoPR, PRIA, IDRF in the past. Dr. Sinha has earlier authored/co-authored four books (1. Governance in Gram Panchayats and 2 . Community Mobilisation in Fifth Schedule (PESA) Areas, both published by Govt. of India, 3. Status of Social Audit in India 2019 published by NIRD & PR and 4 .Accountability Mechanisms in Rural Development published by Abhijeet Publications). He has edited three books (1. Rural Development in India: Challenges and Opportunities published by Abhijeet Publications, 2. Sustainable Development Goals and Panchayats by Rawat Publications and 3. Panchayati Raj in India: Theory and Practice published by Studium Press). Chapter Contributors: Dr. Rajeev Bansal, Dr. Shafia Wani, Dr. Biswa Mohana Jena, Dr. Binita Nanda, Dr. Trilok Chandan Goud, Dr. Vikas Jha, Dr. Rawal Singh Aulakh, Dr. Sakshi Sahni, Ms. Chitra Chandra, Ms. Anindita Mukherjee, Mr. Anthony Chettri, Ms. Bedadyuti Jha, Mr. Mohan Pathak, Ms. Jasmeet Kaur, Mr. Sreeramulu Gosikonda, Ms. Jashi M. Gurung and Dr. Rajesh Kumar Sinha.
