Assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the livelihood of rural India

Widespread country-wise lockdowns and mobility restrictions due to the COVID-19 outbreak have negatively affected the income from agriculture and informal sales among India’s rural dwellers. Farmers were economically stressed with access to markets and many of the inputs used in production. Also, the return of millions of workers to their villages in the wake of the pandemic continued to exert pressure on the rural geography while threatening the resilience of healthcare systems in rural areas. As a research question, this work explores how COVID-19 has impacted the livelihoods of rural Indians majorly in terms of how the virus disrupted agricultural-related economic activity, reverse migration and its socioeconomic consequence on individuals and households, and lastly, how the state and central governments have intervened to contain these effects. Employing the method of literature review of qualitative and deductive paradigm, the study incorporates secondary data, primarily peer-reviewed journal articles, statistics, and reports. The findings are proposed to fill the current knowledge deficit on the impact on the utility of COVID-19 infections on the rural Indian economy. Ethical concerns are based on the correct authorization of data obtained from secondary sources and giving credit to the data owners. The work also stresses the urgency of developing protective and sustainable policies for rural livelihood and rural populations’ welfare, calling attention to the importance of a differential approach to help rural people.