The rural region is taking the brunt and perishing unseen, mostly unreported and unwept. In Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi administration declared the number of Covid deaths at 227, but those at the ghats came out with a number far bigger than that reported by government sources. In the peak days of April 1 to May 7, according to the ghat undertakers, everyday there were 400 cremations. The number in a week was even more, 2800 cremated. That too was available to those alone fortunate enough to get the wood and space.

The crisis, without adequate handling, is spread all over deep and wide. In the recent panchayat elections, school teachers were engaged. Panchayats are in villages, and most of them were under the grip of Covid. Teachers too were not spared. Most of them were suffering and dying, on duty and post duty, The state government informed the teachers’ union who demanded compensation that only three teachers died while taking part in election duty. Also, to deserve compensation, only those teachers are eligible who could die while on duty!

UP state unit of teachers’ unions have been in agitation mode. They demand compensation for the actual number of the teachers who succumbed. Against the number of the dead given by the state, which stopped at three, the reality was far more brutal. It was 1621 teachers perished. Covid 19 is an eroding disease not easily detectable without tests. Teachers had been engaged in locations where masses of people have been crowding. Thus conceived, the disease takes time to kill. One dies later, turning ineligible for compensation. The observation of the Allahabad high court has been that the death must be compensated with Rs 1 crore since the state and the election commission both have been found guilty of forcing the teachers to join the election duty in the ‘absence of RT-PCR support’. The court said it was a deliberate act, with a threat of suspension and pay cut that the teachers were pushed to the terrible end.

So far as the rural areas in the country are concerned the state of Uttar Pradesh is perhaps the best example of how huge masses of rural population are pushed to extreme destitution followed by disease and death. It is the state government survey itself conducted ins 79, 000 of the 97,000 revenue villages in the state that brought it out that the infection had spread to 28,742 villages.

As per reports, there has been declared a decline in the phase two and yet the doctors in these remote, unreported areas, are still busy treating untested huge masses of patients, without any help to restrain the giant attack.

According to a channel for Hindi news in UP that sent its reporters to 1,714 villages of the state, the results were stunning. About ninety percent of them are still awaiting any medical help. Death has become an accepted calamity, and those who live with this reality, have lost all faith in the existing system.

So far as the countrywide Covid testing capacity is concerned, the government at the centre has come out with claims that it has arrived at 25 lakh per day. Out of twenty five lakh tested, there are only half of it, thirteen lakh tests are RT-PCR tests. Rest are left with rapid antigen tests. Even more horrible fact is that the actual daily tests for fresh corona virus detection have not arrived at even 20 lakh mark. Now the ICMR has found a new solution to evade the embarrassment and cleared the use of at-home testing kits.

Meanwhile according to a report from one of the financial services, the 21 lakh crore Covid relief package that was claimed to have ten percent from the GDP, in reality, the actual financial support was only two percent of the GDP, the rest was credit driven.

That too in a situation when one crore jobs are lost in the country in the months of 2021 according to CMIE data, from January to April.

The most shocking fact for the falling rate of economic regeneration especially in the rural area has been that rural unemployment has nearly doubled in a week what with lockdowns and surging Covid infections in villages that has almost shut the economic activity and that in return has been an added factor.

Rural unemployment shot up to 14.34 per cent in the week ended May 16 from 7.29 per cent in the week ended May 9, according to CMIE data showed. Rural unemployment is at a 50-week high: the last time it was higher was nearly a year ago, in the week ended June 7, 2020.

Similarly, urban unemployment climbed to 14.71 per cent, three percentage points more in a week, meanwhile the national unemployment rate went up to 14.45 per cent from 8.67per cent. amid the second Covid wave. The infection rate combined with scarce job possibilities, there started a migration to rural areas where the situation was as dim as it was in urban clusters if not more. (IPA Service)