Shortcomings of Urban India in Dealing With the Pandemic: A Study on the Response From the Rural Regions in India

Cities as the growth grounds of the Indian Economy play a vital role in upholding the overall development of the country throughout all the sectors. During the pandemic period of COVID-19 waves the country witnessed the downfall of urban life in several aspects. The rural population was less affected by the pandemic than the urban population in India. Since having better infrastructure facilities and service providers the urban life uses ICT in almost all ways where the IOT is less addressed. The e-governance was less appreciated and used for tackling the hits and punches of the pandemic in urban areas wherein the rural area the governance is acting at a different scale like with the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) who had done a commendable job in developing and maintaining medical records of people in rural areas using the network of anganwadi teachers and ASHA workers. The urban regions were really suffering more from the pandemic situations since the IOT of medical care is less addressed or encouraged compared to the rural areas. The government’s involvement in public health is becoming lesser as the private health sector is growing quickly and developing high end infrastructure. The network of medical infrastructure, which is primarily with the private sector in urban agglomerations with the governing authorities, needs to be strengthened as it is done in the rural regions, according to an analysis of how governing bodies, especially in rural regions, managed to tackle the pandemic hit. During the lockdown period, rural India had survived while Urban India was struggling to pass their days. These scenarios clearly point out the need for revisiting the planning and infrastructure deployment strategies in urban regions and bringing in local/regional concepts both physical and cultural than global/international concepts. This paper discusses the shortcomings of urban infrastructure in tackling pandemic situations when compared to the rural regions of India.