Jakir Khan, an Indian farm worker, says he has cut down on food as his income has halved. There are fewer and fewer opportunities, he says, for employment in his small village in Uttar Pradesh state.
Khan says his monthly income has come down to 5,000 Indian rupees ($60.17) from 10,000 Indian rupees before the pandemic, while his weekly expenses on food have gone up 60%. In November, he took a 100,000 rupees loan from relatives.
Khan, like millions of others, is struggling with the economic slowdown in rural India, home to 60% of its 1.4 billion people, which is painting a starkly different picture to the country's spectacular economic growth and the prosperity of its urban population.