{"id":164537,"date":"2022-01-25T20:36:55","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T15:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=164537"},"modified":"2022-01-25T20:38:55","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T15:08:55","slug":"covid-19-pandemic-has-widened-economic-inequities-government-interventions-must-be-mindful-of-this-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/covid-19-pandemic-has-widened-economic-inequities-government-interventions-must-be-mindful-of-this-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19 pandemic has widened economic inequities. Government interventions must be mindful of this challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the onset of the pandemic, there has been growing concern\u00a0that\u00a0income and wealth disparities have widened in the country during this period<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the factors that support this view?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

Pandemic has led to\u00a0rise in\u00a0unemployment rate<\/span><\/b>, increase in\u00a0<\/span>casualisation<\/span><\/b>\u00a0of the workforce,\u00a0<\/span>rising dependence on MGNREGA\u00a0<\/span><\/b>and\u00a0<\/span>financial distress<\/span><\/b>\u00a0among MSMEs,\u00a0along with\u00a0rising\u00a0profits of large firms\u00a0and\u00a0a soaring\u00a0stock market.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This\u00a0all point out towards the fact that\u00a0<\/span>Covid-19 has exacerbated inequality.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What does the data from various survey says about the trend?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

Surveys in India tend to underestimate household consumption and income when compared to data from the National Accounts. This makes it difficult to arrive at precise estimates of the distribution of income, consumption or wealth.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, recently a think tank called\u00a0<\/span>People\u2019s Research on India\u2019s Consumer Economy (PRICE)<\/span><\/b>\u00a0has conducted a survey.\u00a0It\u00a0provides a good estimate of how pandemic has led to an increase in inequality.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What does this survey\u00a0indicate?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The survey indicates that the\u00a0<\/span>annual income of the poorest 20 per cent of households in India declined by around 53 per cent in 2020-21<\/span><\/b>\u00a0compared to levels observed in 2015-16. In comparison, incomes of the top 20 per cent households grew by 39 per cent over the same period.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The decline in incomes isn\u2019t just limited to the bottom 20 per cent of households.\u00a0Households in the second and third quintiles also witnessing\u00a0a\u00a0income\u00a0fall, though of lower magnitudes.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0urban poor have borne a disproportionate burden of the loss.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the way forward?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

Since large parts of the economy continue to face financial distress, government should intervene through the\u00a0<\/span>upcoming Union budget<\/span><\/b>\u00a0to bridge this growing inequality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/span><\/b>– This post is based on the article \u201c<\/span>Covid-19 pandemic has widened economic inequities. Government interventions must be mindful of this challenge<\/span><\/b>\u201d published in\u00a0<\/span>Indian express<\/span><\/b>\u00a0on 24th Jan 2022.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News\u00a0 Since the onset of the pandemic, there has been growing concern\u00a0that\u00a0income and wealth disparities have widened in the country during this period.\u00a0\u00a0 What are the factors that support this view?\u00a0 Pandemic has led to\u00a0rise in\u00a0unemployment rate, increase in\u00a0casualisation\u00a0of the workforce,\u00a0rising dependence on MGNREGA\u00a0and\u00a0financial distress\u00a0among MSMEs,\u00a0along with\u00a0rising\u00a0profits of large firms\u00a0and\u00a0a soaring\u00a0stock market.\u00a0 This\u00a0all point out… Continue reading Covid-19 pandemic has widened economic inequities. Government interventions must be mindful of this challenge<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10500],"class_list":["post-164537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700679963},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}