❈ ❈ ❈
Pandemic Pushed 32 Million Indians Out of Middle Class: Pew Research Center
Financial woes brought by last year’s Coronavirus pandemic have pushed about 32 million Indians out of the middle class, undoing years of economic gains, a report showed on Thursday, while job losses pushed millions into poverty.
The number of Indians in the middle class, or those earning between $10 and $20 a day, shrunk by about 32 million, compared with the number that could have been reached in the absence of a pandemic, the US-based Pew Research Centre said.
A year into the pandemic, the numbers of those in the middle class has shrunk to 66 million, down a third from a pre-pandemic estimate of 99 million, it added. “India is estimated to have seen a greater decrease in the middle class and a much sharper rise in poverty than China in the COVID-19 downturn,” the Pew Research Centre said.
Nearly 57 million people had joined the middle-income group between 2011 and 2019, it added.
The Pew Centre estimated the number of poor people, with incomes of $2 or less each day, has gone up by 75 million as the recession brought by the virus has clawed back years of progress. A rise of nearly 10% in domestic fuel prices this year, job losses and salary cuts have further hurt millions of households, forcing many people to seek jobs overseas.
(Exract. Courtesy: The Wire.)
❈ ❈ ❈
375 Million Indian Children to Suffer After-Effects of Covid-19 Pandemic: CSE
SabrangIndia
India is all set to usher in a ‘pandemic generation’ with 375 million children suffering Covid-19’s after-effects such as being under-weight, stunting, loss of education and work productivity, said the State of India’s Environment 2021 report published by the Down To Earth magazine in association with Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). This population includes children upto 14 years and over 50 percent of the 500 million children across the globe who had to leave school.
Following the report’s release on February 25, 2021, CSE Director General Sunita Narain said, “Covid-19 has made the world’s poor poorer. The pandemic is a shock response to our dystopian relationship with nature. It has amplified the inequity and deep divisions in our world.”
Narain said that places such as overcrowded settlements with no urban services like sanitation or water supply have become the most vulnerable to the disease. The report says that 115 million additional people globally may be pushed into extreme poverty by the pandemic, most likely from South Asia.
(Extract. Full article available on internet.)
❈ ❈ ❈
Delhi Saw a Sharp Rise in Joblessness Due to COVID-19; Women Worst Affected: Survey
The Wire Staff
A Delhi government survey has revealed that unemployment rose by 17.4 percentage points in the period between January-February and October-November 2020 due to the impact of lockdowns imposed to curtail the spread of Coronavirus. The overall joblessness rose from 11.1% to 28.5% while women’s unemployment rose more than men from 25.6% to 54.7% in the said period, according to reports.
Even among those employed, average incomes dropped significantly from Rs 16,511 to Rs 15,383 in the period concerned.
The findings are a result of the Delhi government-commissioned survey and had been carried out by the Centre for Market Research and Social Development. The survey, which is yet to be shared in the public domain, has a sample size of 44,226 individuals across all 11 revenue districts in Delhi.
Among the unemployed respondents, the survey has observed that 56% were jobless for over six months and continued to look for work. While 30% of them said they were unable to find work due to the economic slump, 29.3% cited “closure of business” as the reason for their joblessness.
The number of employed earning less than Rs 5,000 per month rose from 7% in January-February to 13% by October 2020. Those earning between Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 dropped from 30% to 20% in the said period.
Before the pandemic struck, female unemployment stood at 25.6%, and the corresponding figure for men was 8.7%. With the outbreak of COVID-19 necessitating lockdowns and largescale disruption to economic activity, the figures jumped to 54.7% for women, and 23.2 for men.
This translates into 83% of women being out of the labour force, while the same figure for men stood at 31.6%. Among the out-of-labour-force women, 16.6% are known to be graduates, 27.6% have cleared Class 12 and 23.8% have studied till Class X. As for men, 31.6% were out of the labour force in October 2020. The male labour force participation rate (LFPR) was 68.4%.
Age-wise break up shows that unemployment was highest in the 15-25 age bracket. In this category, the unemployment rate increased from 25.5% to 28.2% during the lockdown and from 8.8% to 27.4% among those aged above 60.
“The percentage of reduction in employment in various top sectors were: specialised construction activities (43%), Food and beverage service activities (31%), Education (30%), Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (25%), Services to buildings and landscape activities (25%), Information service activities (22%), Land transport and transport via pipelines (22%),” the Indian Express quoted from the report.
(Extract. For full article, see Wire website.)
❈ ❈ ❈
COVID-19-Induced School Closures Impacted 247 Million Indian Children: UNICEF
The Wire Staff
As many as 1.5 million schools remained closed during 2020 due to the coronavirus lockdown, which saw the study opportunities of 247 million children enrolled in elementary and secondary schools in India damaged, a UNICEF report has found.
The report stated that online education is not an option for many children, as only one in four has access to digital devices and internet connectivity. Pre-COVID-19 crisis, only a quarter of households (24%) in India had access to the internet and there is a large rural-urban and gender divide, the study says.
“In India, closure of 1.5 million schools due to the pandemic and lockdowns in 2020 has impacted 247 million children enrolled in elementary and secondary schools. In addition, there are over six million girls and boys who were already out of school even before the COVID-19 crisis began,” a statement from the UN agency said on Wednesday.
Presently, only eight Indian states or Union Territories (UTs) have reopened schools for students from Class I to Class XII. In addition, another 11 states have reopened schools for students in Classes VI-XII and 15 states have only opened schools for students in Classes IX-XII. Three States have reopened anganwadi centers, with younger children losing out greatly on crucial foundational learning, the study said.
UNESCO said that more than 888 million children worldwide continue to face disruptions to their education due to full and partial school closures.
(Extract. For full article, see Wire website.)
