Nearly 79% of people pushed into poverty by Covid pandemic in 2020 were from India, World Bank says

India bore the brunt of the overwhelming number of people who were plunged into poverty in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new report by the World Bank.

Approximately 71 million people across the globe may have been pushed into extreme poverty due to the pandemic, the World Bank said in its latest report, titled Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022: Correcting Course.

India accounted for 56 million, or every eight out of 10 people who were pushed to extreme poverty in 2020, it said, underscoring the huge burden of the pandemic in the country.

The report also noted that the country witnessed a “pronounced economic contraction” in the same year.

Covid also didn’t just slow down growth, but “reversed” progress many countries made in recent decades to reduce poverty, as it upended numerous lives, brought industries to a near-standstill and disrupted global economic activities, the World Bank explained.

The pandemic hit lower- and middle-income economies the hardest, with the poor “disproportionately” impacted due to the economic slowdown during the pandemic.

It led to a rise in the global extreme poverty rate, which increased from 8.4 per cent in 2019 to 9.3 per cent in 2020.

But despite the report noting that the most populous countries were the biggest contributor to the increase in global poverty, it highlighted that China did not contribute much to the global poverty increase in 2020, despite being the most populated country.

The Asian giant experienced a “moderate economic shock in 2020,” according to the report.

Data from the Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (CPHS), conducted by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, a private data company, was used for the report.

CPHS data was used to measure poverty, as the Indian government has not released official data on poverty since 2011.

“Given the country’s size and importance for global and regional poverty estimates, the CPHS data help fill an important gap,” the report stated.

It also noted that recovery from the Covid pandemic has also been “uneven”.

“The richest economies have recovered from the pandemic at a much faster pace than low- and middle-income economies,” it said.

The World Bank has projected poverty reduction to be further hindered in 2022 as the invasion of Ukraine, growth slowdown in China and inflating food and energy prices have taken a toll on global growth.

By the end of 2022, as many as 685 million people could still be living in extreme poverty, it noted. This would make 2022 the second-worst year for poverty reduction in the last two decades after 2020.