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The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has become an important driver of the rural economy in light of COVID-19 and the lockdown across the country. Yet, in most of the villages of Jaisinghnagar block, Shahdol, the work either did not start, or came to a standstill soon after.

The global crisis due to COVID-19 has affected India little later in March 2020, while WHO announced it as world emergency on last phase of January 2020. A complete lockdown after China war has been faced by 135 Crore Indians, from 24th March 2020 and within a span of 4 hours’ time everything came to a standstill.

Last August, the gram sabha of Jabarra village in Dhamtari, Chhattisgarh secured rights over 5,352 hectares forest. By focusing on ecotourism, this tribal village has attracted many tourists

After their agonizing experience in cities during the lockdown, migrant workers, in very large numbers, are back in their villages. Can the rural economy sustain them? Will they find ways of earning? The rural employment programme, MGNREGA, offers hope. But it remains to be seen whether in the current context it is the solution.

Strengthening farm and non-farm livelihoods can pave the way for food and nutritional security.

As the world grapples with the devastating consequences of the spread of the novel coronavirus, nations are faced with multiple questions that go well beyond the direct impact of contracting the disease. We are dealing with a massive loss of livelihoods, unemployment, hunger, and a decline in the overall health status of citizens including the sharp rise in mental health ailments. In India, agricultural distress is stark and ever-increasing.

At around 4 am, Shamli Devi leaves her home with a water bottle, torch and a clean cloth, walking nearly 5 km to the nearest forest in eastern Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla district. For the next five or six hours, Shamli toils away in the heat, plucking leaves from

Steep mountains alternate with deep valleys and lush green forests in West Singbhum, the iron ore mining hub in Jharkhand. Home mostly to a tribal population, the district has dismal health and social indicators, and poverty is rampant. But this may be is gradually changing. Now, fruit laden trees are visible in the landscape over large parts of West Singhbhum.

The COVID-19 pandemic is now a worldwide social, economic, and political crisis, but not everyone is affected in the same way, Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, Arnab Chakraborty, and Sourav Bag write.

As India enters into the 4th phase of lockdown, we are caught between the dilemma of savings lives or protecting livelihoods by keeping the economy open and running. The most marginalised, daily wage earners, unorganised labour class and those at the fringes of our society have been disproportionately affected.