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Beyond individual stories of distress, induced by the sudden lockdown, the signature Indian 'achievement' of India, China to lift millions out of poverty – 271 million between 2006 and 2016 – risks being wiped out as lakhs slip back into penury. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/joblessness-up-22-experts-fear-gains-against-poverty-coronavirus-6352143/
Economist Prof Abhijit Sen; “The entire reduction of poverty in India was premised on growth of jobs in sectors such as construction/exports/services." Low-skilled, even educated persons were able to secure jobs." At its heart was "the dehaadi (daily wages) model" that has shut.
Economist Dr @EmergingRoy; "government must not let the COVID-19 crisis impact “India’s very successful war on poverty. So the focus must be on income support to the poor and vulnerable — the migrant labour, landless agricultural workers and those in the informal sector..."
Informal sector with 93% of our workforce has been hit hard. There will be a "trickle up" damaging the vitals of our economy, individual lives of course in peril, having slid down the Bread line (however measured). Listen to Matadin Dhankar from Morena, Chhagan Pawar from Beed
Ironically, they were always vulnerable to health emergencies. This underlined by a report by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) published in the British Medical Journal in 2018 found that health expenses drove 55 million Indians into poverty in 2011-12 alone. @thePHFI
This is what worries Santosh Jadhav, 26, now back in Talkhed village in Beed district. Employed in sugarcane-related in Kolhapur, he earned Rs 60K every season with his wife. He took an advance of Rs 1.6 lakh, and doesn’t know how he will pay it back.
The thing is, and only a few states like Kerala understood this. Universal Public Health keeps people healthy and healthy people make for healthy economics. The argument that poor countries can't and should not spend on health is flawed as a moral AND as an economic argument
Surveys speak of these deep hits to India, which must be acknowledged by the govt. It is not a seasonal crisis. @CMIE says urban joblessness is up to 30.93%. @ilo says 400m could be pushed into poverty. Jan Sahas surveyed 3196 migrants and said 42% did not have one day's rations.
On the @jan_sahas Survey, more here - https://indianexpress.com/article/coronavirus/survey-shows-42-have-no-ration-left-for-the-day-covid-19-india-updates-6335558/
