Number of India’s poor doubles; middle-class shrinks by a third in 2020

India’s middle class is estimated to have shrunk by a third in 2020 and the number of the country’s poor more than doubled because of the pandemic-triggered recession, a report released by the Washington-based non-profit Pew Research said on Thursday.

According to the report, the number of middle-class people in India have been reduced to 6.6 crores during one year. The figure before the Corona crisis was 9.9 million. Talking about the number of poor, their number is estimated to reach 13.4 crores.

The havoc of Corona engulfed the whole world. It kept the economy of all countries in ruins. In the Indian context, the economy almost collapsed due to the lockdown imposed to prevent the virus. US Non-Profit Pew The research report says that the virus has given a big blow to India. Because of this, the middle class has shrunk and the number of poor has almost doubled already.

The figure before the Corona crisis was 9.9 million. Talking about the number of poor, their number is estimated to reach 13.4 crores. Before Corona, their number was about 59 million.

In the context of India, those earning between 10 and 20 dollars (725 to 1450 rupees) daily are considered in the middle class. According to the report, people whose daily income is less than $ 2 (Rs 145) are kept in the category of poor. The report says that the demand under the MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Development Scheme) has seen a huge jump. This is the highest since its launching.

However, China managed to handle itself in the meantime. India and China comprise two-thirds of the world’s population. According to a World Bank report, in the pre-Corona situation, GDP in India was estimated to be 5.8 percent. It talked about China’s GDP is 5.9 percent. In the post-Corona era, India’s GDP is projected to be 9.6 percent, while China is succeeding at a slow plus 2 percent.

Significantly, for the past year, the Corona crisis has engulfed the whole world. The spread of the coronavirus is not taking its name. Due to Corona, there has been a big decline in the middle-class population. Millions of people have fallen below the poverty line due to the loss of jobs. According to the report, the lockdown imposed due to Corona brought economic activity to a standstill. This plunged India into the biggest economic downturn in 40 years.