ArticlePloS one2026
Diverse coping strategies for food insecurity: A qualitative study of economically precarious households in India in the context of COVID-19.
Article in PloS one, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThe study examines how households in two Indian states managed food insecurity in the context of COVID-19, focusing on differences between migrant and non-migrant households in rural and urban areas.
methodsWe integrate Davies' framework of coping strategies with the Sustainable Livelihoods and Resilience frameworks to analyze how coping capacity is shaped by structural inequalities, existing resources, social networks, and access to entitlements. Between December 2022 and March 2023, we conducted 343 semi-structured interviews in 86 households in Uttar Pradesh and Goa, purposively sampled by migration status, location, caste, and household type. Thematic analysis was complemented with narrative analysis of 60 interviews from 15 households that had experienced severe COVID-related shocks, including job loss, reverse migration, and illness.
findingsStrategies ranged from routine adjustments-dietary substitutions, portion control, and pooling resources-to erosive responses such as maternal buffering, selling assets, accumulating debt, withdrawing children from school, and delaying healthcare. Rural non-migrants drew on kinship ties and PDS support, while migrants, especially circular migrant workers/recent arrivals were excluded from both entitlements and social support networks. Reverse migration reconnected households with rural networks but also strained agrarian systems.
conclusionMigration status and rural-urban location critically shaped resilience. Coping responses to COVID-19 depended less on income loss than on structural access to entitlements and social support networks, highlighting the need for inclusive, context-specific, and targeted social protection.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.