Since March, a second Covid-19 wave, driven by a more infectious variant of the coronavirus, has led to an unprecedented crisis in India. W...
Since March, a second Covid-19 wave, driven by a more infectious variant of the coronavirus, has led to an unprecedented crisis in India. With over 25 million cases and over 2.78 lakh reported deaths, India’s healthcare infrastructure is proving inadequate. Medical personnel are overworked and overwhelmed, medicines and oxygen cylinders are scarce, crematoriums and cemeteries have been running out of space for funerals.
While urban India struggles, another worrying development has begun to unfold: Covid-19 has now spread in rural areas.
Recent data analysed by the Hindustan Times shows that in March, rural areas contributed a little over a third of all cases (34.3%) in India. In April, this increased to nearly half (44.1%). In May, rural India accounted for 1.39 times more Covid-19 cases than cities.
One region where the disease has spread widely is southern rural Rajasthan, which is largely tribal, backward, characterised by acute poverty, barren land and poor access to welfare. Basic HealthCare Services, a health-based NGO associated with Aajeevika Bureau, the migrants rights organisation for which I work, has been on the frontlines of the response to the crisis. It runs clinics in six underserved regions of South Rajasthan.
Medicine shortage
While official estimates of the extent of the spread in the state are...
