The Covid-19 pandemic magnified the indivisibility of public health and economic well-being. In the case of India, the potential socioeconomic impact of the pandemic will be more severe with a rise in poverty and an increase in socio-economic inequalities with worsening welfare indices like health and nutrition. To safeguard the poor from the nemesis of the pandemic, the Indian government announced various aid and relief packages for the marginalized and vulnerable sections. The present study analyzed COVID-19 relief access and determined its association with food security and health-seeking behavior among rural households during the lockdown. It used third-round data from the World Bank’s ‘COVID-19-related Shocks in Rural India 2020s survey, which was conducted in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh. A total of 5200 households were interviewed in the third-round. After filtering the data for missing values and incomplete questionnaires, the final sample size was 1261. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression models were used to substantiate the objectives. The relief access among the rural households was satisfactory with approximately 94% of the households receiving any financial aid and 87.2% receiving food aid. However, a significant portion of households were food insecure due to the insufficiency of PDS food aid. Both visits to health facilities (38.7%) and the avoidance of health care due to COVID-19 (14.6%) were relatively low. Although none of the COVID-19 relief aids had a significant impact on food security, the receipt of financial assistance was found to reduce the avoidance of necessary healthcare seeking among the study population.

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COVID-19 Relief Access, Food Security, and Health-Seeking Behaviour Among Rural Households During the Lockdown Period

  • Pragyan Monalisa Sahoo,
  • Himanshu Sekhar Rout

摘要

The Covid-19 pandemic magnified the indivisibility of public health and economic well-being. In the case of India, the potential socioeconomic impact of the pandemic will be more severe with a rise in poverty and an increase in socio-economic inequalities with worsening welfare indices like health and nutrition. To safeguard the poor from the nemesis of the pandemic, the Indian government announced various aid and relief packages for the marginalized and vulnerable sections. The present study analyzed COVID-19 relief access and determined its association with food security and health-seeking behavior among rural households during the lockdown. It used third-round data from the World Bank’s ‘COVID-19-related Shocks in Rural India 2020s survey, which was conducted in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh. A total of 5200 households were interviewed in the third-round. After filtering the data for missing values and incomplete questionnaires, the final sample size was 1261. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression models were used to substantiate the objectives. The relief access among the rural households was satisfactory with approximately 94% of the households receiving any financial aid and 87.2% receiving food aid. However, a significant portion of households were food insecure due to the insufficiency of PDS food aid. Both visits to health facilities (38.7%) and the avoidance of health care due to COVID-19 (14.6%) were relatively low. Although none of the COVID-19 relief aids had a significant impact on food security, the receipt of financial assistance was found to reduce the avoidance of necessary healthcare seeking among the study population.