A Study of Social Behaviour in the context of COVID-19 in a village named Ghatampur, Bhadohi district in Uttar Pradesh

Abstract : The following research work in the village named "Ghatampur" in Bhadohi of Uttar Pradesh state was to study the after-effects of the COVID-19 on the social behavioural changes among the villagers. The Covid-19 pandemic drastically changed the lives of the villagers with a few months of impact in India. The subsequent after-effects of the pandemic broke the normal life cycle and halted the normal village life. Many people from the village who worked in the Tier-1 cities of the country in the west like Mumbai lost their jobs; they were facing absolute monetary problems, no food, insecurities, no upcoming future to start again in the city for the near distant future, and last but not the least the threat to death due to Covid-19. These factors affected so profoundly the villagers from inside that a sort of crisis broke down among them, and migrant workers started returning to their respective villages. Ghatampur is one of these Covid19 affected villages where migrant workers returned to their village with many difficulties, and certainly, it was not so easy. It surely affected the existing relationship between the villagers, among the family members, even in some cases there was extra stress, distress, agony due to the sudden job loss, insecurity related to the near future, the burden of carrying forward the huge family load with a bright future. The existing relationships between the villagers were stained to some extent, and the existing social factors do affect, to some extent, the behavioural pattern of the villagers. With a request from FARF (Fundamental Action and Research Foundation), we have chosen this research topic to deeply study the after-effects of the pandemic in social behaviour of the villagers. FARF organization has been doing an excellent job of social works like educating girls from lower castes of nearby villages, helping the distressed villagers provide food during prolonged lockdown, raising awareness among the villagers, etc. They wanted to study the after-effects of the pandemic on the village to get a general idea about how this pandemic has changed the dynamics of the lives of the villagers and based on that. They can find the main focus areas to work out for their plan to narrow down the gaps.