The pandemic has exposed the healthcare system in rural India, where the crisis of Covid-19 is largely a silent one. In May, six districts in rural India accounted for over 52 per cent of deaths due to Covid-19 and 53 per cent of all new cases of infection.

"While the abysmal state of preparedness in urban India has been in the limelight, a more distressing scenario is emerging from the rural hinterland," says a new statistical report released by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

New Delhi-based CSE is a not-for-profit public interest research and advocacy organisation.