IMPRI Team
The panel discussion was focused upon the conditions of the Indian villages and to share the insights and experiences of the practitioners located in the respective locations. The panel discussion is a part of an expansive series of discussions themed upon the rural realities of Indian villages in the face of the second wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The discussions are organized by the Center for Habitat, Urban and Regional Studies (CHURS), IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi on the 15 May 2021.
The program was commenced by the Assistant Director at IMPRI Ritika Gupta. Followed by which were the opening remarks from Dr. Simi Mehta Editorial CEO at IMPRI. The speakers were introduced and the foreground was laid for the conversation to begin in regards to the ground reality of the villages in the states of Jharkhand and Bihar in the Second Wave of the COVID Pandemic from the eyes and experiences of the practitioners.
Dr Anamika Priyadarshini (Lead Research (Bihar), Center for Catalyzing Change) mainly described the second wave of COVID in Bihar state as extremely frightening and said that the death figures are shocking compared to last year. By February-March 2021, everyone was convinced about COVID that now it was going to end, but this global epidemic showed its fury in the second phase and once again there posed the question of earning a living in front of the migrant workers on a large scale.
It is to be known that the internal migration of migrant workers has been mainly from the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh (total 37%) of the country, in which the migrant workers of Bihar come second. However, compared to the first phase of COVID, social aversion is being seen on a lesser scale in this wave because the rate of infection has increased suddenly.
Finally, highlighting many other aspects of this wave – the social plight arising out of Covid and the efforts and insensitivity of the Bihar Government (such as – the problem of vacant posts of health workers, the slow process of testing and vaccination and the state-wide lockdown. Non-compliance in strict compliance) also took a dig at many other problems.
