Covid-19 And Rural Lives And Livelihood In India

The national lockdown has severely affected lives and livelihoods across rural India. Agriculture and allied sectors employ more than half of the workforce in the country. A vast majority of Indian farmers (85%) are small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land. More than nine million active fishers directly depend on fisheries for their livelihood, 80% of which are small scale fishers; the sector employs over 14 million people.

Impact of the Lockdown

• Delay in Harvest: Harvest of the Rabi crops has been delayed due to non-availability of labour, machinery, transport facilities and restrictions on movement.
• Effect on Cash Crops: Farmers of perishable commodities like fruits, vegetables, and flowers as well as plantation crops are incurring huge losses.
• Impact on Labour Force: Agricultural labourers are not able to go to work due to lack of transport. Labour work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) has stopped.
• Poultry Sector: Egg prices have crashed to an all-time low and poultry meat sales have dwindled drastically.
• Fisheries Sector: Fishers haven’t been able to go out to sea since end of March and are subsequently worried about the 45-day annual fishing ban in line with the fish breeding season, coming into force along the east coast from mid-April. Both brackish and fresh water aquaculture farmers have also been affected with harvest delayed due to labour non-availability, market closure and movement restrictions; exports of shrimps to Europe and the US has stopped and local fish prices have fallen leading to loss of income.
• Adverse Impact on Tribal’s Livelihood: Tribal communities, the most vulnerable in terms of food and nutrition security are severely affected due to ban on the collection and sale of non-timber forest produce like kendu leaves and mahua flowers.

Way Forward

• There is a need for both relief and rehabilitation measures to overcome the loss sustained and rebuild the rural lives.
• In addition to precautionary measures like maintaining social distancing and hand washing, proactive measures by the state with humanitarian perspective are called for as we begin operating in a ‘new normal’:
  • More relief in kind (e.g. making the PDS universal); and cash (e.g. increasing the amount under the PM Samman Kisan Nidhi and releasing the first instalment before kharif);
  • Waiver of interest for the quarter on term loans and overdraft agriculture and MSME accounts;
  • Compensating loss incurred due to damage to perishable crops like flowers, fruits, vegetables and fish and
  • Enlarging the scope of MNREGS to include harvest of crops on farmers’ fields by labour and value addition to produce by women.