Vulnerabilities of the Rural Poor in India during pandemic COVID-19: Social Work perspective for designing sustainable emergency response

Abstract

Poor are vulnerable, frail, battered, marginalized, voiceless, and victim of multiple social circumstances. The complex vulnerable existence always made them suffer and become double victims of any disaster, be it natural, human-made, or biological like pandemic COVID-19. Poverty in India is an outfall of a number of complex social realities, historical past, and present doldrums. Restrictions due to lockdown and a shrinking economy, the job market as the immediate impact caused a number of survival crises for the rural families. The situation of rural poor becomes even more aggravated, as the reverse migration and influx of population increased the consumption and demand for jobs that actually the rural livelihood sector can provide. While the pre-existing vulnerabilities of the poor are exposed in the pandemic, the government's response toward them showed its restricted efficiency. The pandemic COVID-19 has taken human-life hostage and effective sustainable strategies to manage the crisis of the poor vulnerable section were essential for long-term resolution. Thus, the professional challenge ahead is designing a sustainable strategy of working in such pandemic situations that social workers are professionally skilled to handle similar challenges.