India – COVID Assessment And Response Dashboard (I-CARD)

I-CARD is an independent project of a network of researchers housed at Azim Premji University, in collaboration with over 100 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) present a fortnightly data on the Covid-19 humanitarian crisis for vulnerable groups. The data will enable comparisons across geographies and essential issues to support CSOs, government agencies, media and funders for generating response strategies. 

The distinctive features of I-CARD are:

·         The Development Block (not sample households) as a unit of data collection

·         Block Experts (BEs) as respondents (nominated from a wide network of CSOs)

·         Qualitative information from BEs converted to a scale

·         Frequent (fortnightly) collection to assess change over time 

I-CARD provides information on food security, healthcare, financial access, livelihoods, social relations, and the situation of migrants. Data are available for 200+ blocks across Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Maharashtra. 

I-CARD enables users to interact with data across essential issues, geography, and time. The visualisations are designed such that the user can view data at both macro and micro levels. I-CARD provides a platform for users (agencies engaged in relief measures, other interested organisations and individuals, media) to analyse the data and generate insights that can guide action.

Emerging Patterns for clusters of blocks:

§  Unevenness in access to healthcare, especially for the vast majority of non-COVID needs, and significant variation within states. 

§  Significant variation in access to cash and credit, including within states. 

§  Distress in the situation of returned migrants, with significant variation across clusters. 

§  Widespread income loss for vulnerable groups.

§  Cluster-wise variation in the availability of work-days under MGNREGA, with the low absolute number of work-days.

§  Considerable incidence of social discrimination, with significant variation across clusters and within states.

From the data, the following clusters of blocks in each state emerge as regions of concern. A more dynamic picture will be available from additional rounds of data.

The I-CARD team will also share the purpose, use and emerging patterns in a Webinar on Tuesday, 9th June, 5 – 6 pm. Ashif Shaikh (Jan Sahas) and Jean Drèze (Ranchi University) will be the discussants.