Evidencing the need for psycho-socio-economic action to support the rural upskilled youth to cope with the COVID-19 health crisis: a state-wide audit

Background: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic extends beyond morbidity and mortality to social, psychological, and economic implications. This study aims to determine the grouping of modifiable impacts of COVID-19 among the rural poor youth working in unorganized sectors in Kerala, India. Methods: We conducted a state-wide telephonic survey, in the context of a COVID-19 national lockdown with 14430 youth, who had been trained through the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), a skill development program of the Government of India, in the last year. Economic, health and health care, social and emotional issues, basic amenity needs, and interpersonal issues were explored in detail. We further prioritized the needs of vulnerable subgroups; pregnant women, people living alone, and those living with comorbid health conditions within this population. Results: All the participants were aged between 18-35 years and were economically poor rural residents. Only 28% had a permanent job and 6.8% of the participants were not working due to the COVID-19 related lockdown. Among the issues shared, the five domains with the highest frequency were financial toxicity, such as loss of income (32.99%), poor financial backup and debt (31.29%), concerns regarding the future job opportunities (23.92%) and fear of losing their current job (14.75%). 98% of the respondents expressed interest in following up with supportive engagements. Conclusion: This research aims to voice students’ needs to the concerned authorities to design a multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary, and multi-systemic approach to reduce their distress in the context of pandemic outbreak.