India’s villages, which have largely been spared from the coronavirus pandemic, now face the risk of local outbreaks and a plunge in revenue from remittances, as millions of jobless migrant workers return home
By Vibhuti Agarwal Close Vibhuti Agarwal , Krishna Pokharel and Rajesh Roy Close Rajesh Roy June 18, 2020 7:00 am ET The village of Sarna Toli in eastern India hasn’t recorded one coronavirus case. Yet the rural enclave of about 250 people has been transformed by the global pandemic.
India’s major cities have been hardest hit by the coronavirus, as outbreaks in Mumbai and Delhi overwhelm hospitals stretched in the best of times. But life in rural villages, home to more than two-thirds of Indians, is now also being upended. “The situation is grave,” Mr. Kumar said. “Their incomes from the cities supported the education of their kids and well-being of their families in the village. Now how will they look after them?”
The longer the economic contraction goes on and the deeper it gets, the larger the lurch back into poverty across the globe. According to a study at the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research, between 80 million and 395 million more people could be thrust into extreme poverty if the global economy contracts between 5% and 20% this year, a range projected by international financial institutions based on various pandemic responses.
He said the villages have launched a publicly funded project digging up a pond, but few of the returnees are signing up. “They feel it’s a menial job with meager pay,” he said. They can now sell directly to retailers and other buyers at market prices for nearly all crops. The government has also allocated money to build storage and processing facilities in rural areas, which should help prevent the sort of gluts that have driven prices down in the past.Polus Khaka, a 32-year-old migrant who returned to Sarna Toli after 12 years working as a hotel manager in Mumbai, doesn’t want to go back.
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