Arresting COVID infections requires community collective action that is
difficult to achieve in a socially and economically diverse setting. Using
district level data from India, we examine the effects of caste and religious
fragmentation along with economic inequality on the growth rate of reported
cases. The findings indicate positive effects of caste homogeneity while
observing limited impact of economic inequality and religious homogeneity.
However, the gains from higher caste homogeneity are seen to erode with the
unlocking procedure after the nationwide lockdown. We find that community
cohesion through caste effect is relatively dominant in rural areas even when
mobility restrictions are withdrawn. Our findings indicate planners should
prioritize public health interventions in caste-wise heterogeneous areas to
compensate for the absence of community cohesion. The importance of our study
lies in empirically validating the causal pathway between homogeneity and
infection and providing a basis for zoning infection prone areas