To arrest the surge of Covid-19 in villages, India must involve NGOs and use simple technologies
People’s trust in public systems must be rebuilt and home care encouraged, say experts. Tauseef Mustafa / AFP
The number of Covid-19 cases in India is now slowing down a bit, with around 3,50,000 cases and fewer than 4,200 deaths every day. We know by now that on both numbers, there is considerable under-counting.
The number of cases at a national level does not also represent, or perhaps hides, what is happening in rural India. What we do know now, through anecdotal measurements, either in terms of the number of deaths or the fieldwork of many organisations, is that cases in rural India are now much higher than ever?