The virus struck India at a time when the country was experiencing its worst economic development in over a decade. The weakening economy had adversely harmed rural areas, which house the bulk of the country’s citizens.

Even in the lack of official data, one might detect an increase in rural poverty. High unemployment, consumption expenditure was continually decreasing, and public development investment was stagnating. These three variables, taken combined, determine an economy’s health.

For more than a year, rural Indians — mainly an informal workforce and impoverished by any recognised measure — have been living with sporadic work. Anecdotal reports of risky survival are coming in. People are cutting back on food purchases; many have ceased eating staples such as lentils as food prices have risen.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is no longer sufficient to hold employment expectations. Most people are depleting their small savings. Mostly with the pandemic’s second wave wreaking havoc, it’s a desperate scenario. One may say that the economy for the poorest and the moderately well-off has come to an end.

A pre-Covid economic downturn, coupled with the pandemic’s economic shock, is believed to have reversed any poverty-reduction advances, resulting in a significant increase in poverty.

Using World Bank statistics, Pew Research Center projected that the number of poor in India (those with an earnings of $2 a day or below in purchasing power parity) has increased to 134 million from 60 million within only a year as a result of the pandemic-induced recession. It means that, after 45 years, India has once again become  a “country of widespread poverty.”

Since 2011, India has not counted the impoverished. However, the United Nations projected that 364 million people were impoverished in the nation in 2019, accounting for 28% of the population. This does not include the projected new impoverished as a result of the outbreak. According to estimates, millions of people in major cities have also fallen below the poverty line. According to the Pew Center, the middle class has decreased by one-third. Despite population and geographical divisions, millions of Indians have gotten worse, remained poor, or are on the verge of becoming impoverished.

For a huge population like India, where millions of lives are at stake, the need to create a system that maps the areas and homes that are in desperate need for some help from the government. Public services are seen as the most realistic means of lifting the most vulnerable people from poverty.

To bring about change in anti-poverty initiatives, the government should use scientific methods and analyses. Moreover, there is a need for a long-term plan to combat poverty, which may be accomplished by enabling the most disadvantaged section of society self-sufficient by providing them with some type of skill set.

Local authorities can play a significant role in this issue because they are more familiar with the underlying causes of the crises. Strengthening them via technical and technological support as well as an enhanced monitoring system will help to reduce poverty at the grass roots. It is critical to provide food assistance and enough cash to such families in order to keep them from falling further into impoverishment.

When compared to the time it was at its peak, the number of Covid 19 cases has decreased, but many individuals have been trapped in a vicious circle of exacerbating the situation, economic decline, and unemployment. There is still some hope that along with long-term solutions, we can not only overcome the crisis, but also use it to raise people out of poverty, which is feasible for a nation that has decreased poverty at the highest pace in history.