Multiple reports say the Covid-19 pandemic hardly hit India and dragged 40 million people to extreme poverty, worsening hunger, unemployment, and income inequality. The government still doesn’t have accurate data. Multiple studies warn India to face severe poverty and hunger issues as the country is the home of many poor people. With the eight months of complete lockdown during the pandemic 1st phase, and some countries like the USA, UK, etc., are witnessing the second wave of the contagious virus. It is a bitter truth that 40 million are going to be extremely poor with just one calamity.
The pandemic affected poor or low-income households in several countries as they are settled in informal sectors and at the risk of job losses; hence they have less financial savings to access quality healthcare. The ill-effects of the pandemic have impacted more on women and young workers due to their job loss risks. 94% of India’s workforce has tiny legal protection & social security coverage.
Indian Hunger Issues
The 2020 global hunger index reports that India is at the 94th position out of 107 countries suffering from hunger at peak level. Our neighbors like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and China are doing better than us. They considered four significant parameters while measuring the hunger intensity in the nations, i.e., malnutrition, child stunting, child wasting, and child mortality. India is struggling from hunger before the invasion of the pandemic & the virus spreading has exacerbated the issues to a severe extent. Apart from this, India is going deep on income inequality and poverty conflicts.
We need commitment from the government as there is no measure of job loss tracking and providing help for the migrant workers in their troubled times. Millions of poor have walked to their homes from one state to another without transport facilities, and it never happened in the rest of the world. The OECD countries have saved 50 million jobs and contributed efforts to survive during the job losses to support people’s livelihood. There is unremedied poverty existing in the country, and income inequality and hunger worsen the situation.
Steps to Overcome Poverty and Hunger in India
Helping the people is the only solution to save and protect the people from poverty and hunger. These instant solutions may not last forever, but without this, many will end their lives due to food deprivation and poor healthcare. Releasing the ration kits to survive for a few days is not enough to save their lives, and most of the low-income families live in a crowded environment where there are more chances of not maintaining hygiene.
Raising funds from people does a tremendous job of overcoming this problem as small amounts gathered from a vast crowd give enough money to spend for the poor. Support the nonprofits, NGOs helping for the national welfare. Everyone is helping to overcome these challenging conditions one or the other way from their small savings. Let us make a significant impact through your generous support to the poor to come out of poverty.
