India, July 12 -- India has employed its direct benefit transfer system to help people tide over the ongoing health and economic crises. Its real test will begin when the crises deepen

Without any cash or work, how will I survive? That was my first thought after reaching my village," says Ram Kewat, a 60-year-old daily wage labourer.

It's a journey of 450 kilometres from Delhi to his village on the outskirts of Jhansi, one of Uttar Pradesh's southernmost districts. Kewat covered that distance on foot in just five days, walking, on average an excruciatingly tiresome 90 km a day to reach his village on March 29. After the government announced a three-week nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on March 24, Kewat knew that h...