Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on India | UPSC 2021

Coronavirus is popularly known as COVID- 19 (Corona Virus Disease) which is mainly a respiratory illness. It has been originated in December 2019, in Wuhan, China. In march 2020 WHO declared it a Pandemic. It had a huge impact on all the sectors like Economy, Health and Food system, Industries, Society, Education etc.

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Impact on People's livelihood and Health

For any population, the availability of functional public health systems is literally a question of life and death. According to WHO (World Health Organization) Pandemic has caused major devastation and ten million people are at risk of falling into poverty. With the number of increasing unnourished people,  currently estimated 690 million could be increased by up to 132 million by the end of the year. Nearly a 3.3million population of the world have been on verge of losing their livelihood. Millions have lost their job and it has also impacted informal workers. The health sector of developed countries like the USA, China, Russia has also been affected a lot. 

In India, COVID-19 has affected the livelihood of people mainly due to the migration of a huge mobile population from one state to another. The second wave hits approximately one-third population and the shortage of oxygen supply led to the death of millions. The Health System has been on the verge of collapse and the new Health minister need to learn from previous experience and focus on newly made strategy. Larger programs like NHM (National Health Mission), NUHM (National Urban Health Mission), Ayushman Bharat Scheme required due attention of the health minister. There must be an effective system to spread awareness about all these programs among the citizens and help them to participate in them.

NITI Aayog has recently published a document 'Investment opportunities in India's healthcare system' which promotes further privatisation of Health care in the country. The health minister must assert his authority to stop such moves for further privatisation, which might benefit healthcare corporates but would be damaging for ordinary people.

Impact on Agriculture and Food System

COVID- 19 has also affected the agriculture sector of many nations. Agriculture workers, self-employed and waged while feeding the county's population faced high levels of poverty, malnutrition and poor health. In the case of India, approximately 60% population is involved in Agriculture and they suffered a lot due to pandemics. It results in an effect on the food system of the world. 

Trade restrictions, border ceilings and other measures prevented farmers from selling their products and buying new inputs and products which are necessary to maintain their farm and harvesting. Results of all these have led to disruptions in the food supply chain of the world. The nutrition and food security of children and BPL families are under threat in especially developing countries and underdeveloped countries.

If we talk about the food system of India then it has made enormous progress on food production over years since the era of the Green revolution. In 2020 country produced about 30 crore tonnes of cereals and build up 10 crore tonnes of food stock. Still due to pandemic marginalised and vulnerable families continue to be suffered. In such a crisis situation programs like the Public Distribution System (PDS), 'One Nation, One Rationcard'  became the lifeline for millions hit by pandemics.

Impact on Education

COVID-19 pandemic has not spared the education sector also. Education was hampered by the economic crisis and denied almost 32 crores of students education. This national crisis results in an increasing pace of unemployment. Schools and colleges have been shut down since March 2020 and abandon classroom teaching style and promote online education.

According to the Global Internet Network Research, just 24% of households had a consistent internet connection, while other remote areas remained unreachable. The ratio of girl students in remote places was dropping down due to pandemic. Children who have just step up in school have been affected a lot.

The mass promotion in 10th and 12th has resulted in another drawback of the education system. Aspiring candidates were affected because of postponing of various competitive exams. In a short career of millions were falling at risk.

According to ASER (Annual Status of Education Report), parents in rural areas have shown keen interest in children's education which is a plus point in the crisis. Recently launched schemes like Samagra Siksha Abhiyan, Sheri Shikshan will help to reduce the effect of pandemic. Government should also take measures to promote online education and ensure that it will reach to the remotest place of the country.

Impact on Economy

The impact of COVID-19 has been largely disruptive in terms of the Economy. In 2020-21, India' GDP shrank to 7.3% which was the worst performance of the economy in the history of the nation. Due to this various budgetary allocations to society was low which in turn affect the development of the nation. 

According to Ghatak 2021, wealth and income inequalities have been a rise in upcoming years. Many well-known institutes like CMIE's CPHS (Consumer Pyramid Household survey), Oxfam 2020 released data which shows per capita consumption dropped by more than GDP and lowered by 15% at the end of 2020.

If we compare the economic impact of the first wave with the second wave then we can notice that the first wave penetrated to the urban areas only but the second wave has largely impacted the rural population which caused an indirect impact on the economy.

Impact on Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is the result of the failure of our society and economy to protect the most vulnerable sections of our country.

In an environment where priorities and actions are geared towards limiting the spread of COVID-19, it is easier for traffickers to hide their operations and make victims invisible. Identification of victims and subsequent referral protection schemes become more challenging.  Lockdown is a major factor that could reinforce the isolation of victims and reduce drastically any chance of identifying them. Sexual workers have been more vulnerable to exploitation as health hazards and COVID-19 exposure increases.

The government diverting resources amid pandemic and the police force have been assigned a new task to enforce lockdown which also affect their normal operation capacity. under these conditions there will be looming danger to investigate cases related to trafficking which is also a major drawback to prevent trafficking.

Children are at high risk of trafficking because of closure of schools. In some Countries children are forced on to streets in the search of food and income which increases the risk of exploitation and infection.

Pandemic has caused havoc on earth but we must recognize  opportunities to build back better and this is the wake up call for the leaders of the developed nations to take certain measures to create an environment that provides to achieve SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) and try to reduce the effect of COVID-19. Priority should be given to most affected sectors like Education, Health etc. and try to develop some strategy to mitfate the effect of pandemic.