Public Service Delivery in Turbulent Times Where Convergence Matters: Lessons from the Management of Covid-19 in Kerala

Abstract

In turbulent times, the state is charged with three-fold core responsibilities, namely, to reduce or arrest the impact of the crisis on the lives and property of the citizens, to ensure effective and quicker service delivery, and to maintain stateÐsociety relations. In this article, an attempt has been made to analyse how the government of Kerala, which is regarded as one of the best performing states in India, fought the battle of the first wave of Covid-19 in rural areas. An attempt is made to capture and examine the role of the local government institutions and civil society groups, more particularly Kudumbashree groups and to explore how the state government coordinated and facilitated the work of the different state and non-state actors for the convergence of the services delivered by them and for the maintenance of conducive stateÐsociety relations.