“We have to do what we have to do,” said the mother of a child who is just over a year old in Odisha’s Sundargarh district. “If we have to ...

“We have to do what we have to do,” said the mother of a child who is just over a year old in Odisha’s Sundargarh district. “If we have to survive on water, we will.” Since the nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19 was implemented on March 25, this woman and her husband in Theteiposh village have had to take loans to buy food and meet their other expenses. It means that they have no money to spend on the education of their older child.
In Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra district, the owner of a small shop in Bhisure village said he had been giving loans to poor people in his village to help them get by. “There are people in the village, who if they are eating in the morning, are not eating in the evening and if they are eating in the evening, are not eating the next morning,” he said. In fact, he admitted that he had been facing financial hardships himself.
They were among the 115 households contacted in July for a quick phone survey conducted by students and volunteers about the impact of the lockdown and the government support they had received.This was the third round of a survey that had...