By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has offered help to neighbouring India to help it overcome the coronavirus crisis, saying he was willing to share Pakistan’s successful Ehsaas Programme, which is a cash-transfer programme for the needy.
Sharing a news report claiming that 34% of household across India ‘will not be able to survive more than a week without add (additional) assistance’’, the prime minister said, “I am ready to offer help and share our successful cash transfer prog, lauded internationally for its reach and transparency, with India”.
‘84% Indian households suffered a decrease in monthly income since lockdown’
One in three families unlikely to survive beyond a week without additional assistance, warn experts
Describing the programme in another tweet, the prime minister said the Pakistani government had successfully transferred more than Rs100 billion to 10 million families.
“Our govt successfully transferred Rs120 billion in 9 weeks to over 10 million families in a transparent manner to deal with the COVID19 fallout on the poor.”
In April, the Pakistani government started distributing coronavirus relief funds to the needy, a much-awaited step by the affectees of the lockdown which was then imposed to curb the spread of the virus.
According to Dr Sania Nishtar, who is in charge of the programme, 12 million families have received Rs12,000 each under the initiative. A budget of Rs144 billion was approved for the plan, according to Dr Nishtar.
A report published on Tuesday by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School said that Indian economy was in “dire” straits as a lockdown to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus has led to a whopping majority of households experiencing slashed incomes.
The country which, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s dashboard, is seventh on the list of countries with the most infections, as of June 8 recently extended its lockdown through June 30 but only in the containment zones. The Indian government has so far unveiled three stimulus programmes worth in total at almost INR21 trillion, including a liquidity package worth INR7.2 trillion from the country’s central bank, announced before the coronavirus. The report noted that “India’s GDP grew the slowest in 11 years at 3.1% [in the latest quarter] and is expected to contract by 6.8% in the current fiscal year”.
“The economic distress in India caused by the lockdown is dire. Nearly 84% of Indian households are seeing decreases in income since the lockdown began, according to a recent study by experts at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago and the Mumbai-based Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE),” the Wharton School’s report stated.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday offered India sharing of his government’s cash transfer programme that successfully dealt with the negative fallout of COVID-19 on poor.
“I am ready to offer help and share our successful cash transfer programme, lauded internationally for its reach and transparency, with India,” the prime minister said in a tweet, in response to a report that 34 percent households across India will not be able to survive for more than a week without assistance.
The prime minister said his government successfully transferred Rs. 120 billion in nine weeks to over 10 million families in a transparent manner to deal with the COVID19 fallout on the poor.
A study titled “How are Indian households coping under the Covid-19 lockdown? Eight key findings”, carried out by experts at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago and the Mumbai-based Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE) reveals that nearly 84 percent of Indian households is seeing decreases in income since the lockdown began. Nearly a third of all households will not be able to survive beyond a week without additional assistance. “Direct and immediate transfers of food and cash are very high priority,” said Heather Schofield, assistant professor of medical ethics and health policy at the Perelman School of Medicine and a Wharton professor of business economics and public policy.
When a nationwide lockdown began in late March, India’s Ministry of Labour and Employment asked private and public organisations not to terminate jobs on the pretext of prevailing conditions. But these pleas hardly made any difference and large-scale retrenchments have taken place as businesses have been hit hard due to the ongoing crisis.
However, the study found a “sharp and broad negative impact on household income” as the pandemic diminished their staying capacity, adding that the unemployment rate in the country had crossed 27 percent in early May, up nearly four-fold from levels in January-February. The fall in incomes affected people in the lower and middle segments of the income distribution most severely, the study found. “Households in the lowest of the five income groups had average monthly per-capital earnings of less than Rs3,800 (about $50), while those at the high end made between Rs. 12,374 and upwards of Rs1 lakh ($167 to $1,370 and more).”
Households in the middle-income groups are hurt disproportionately more perhaps because they are most likely to be dependent on sources of income that are hit due to the lockdown, the study’s authors stated. Rural households have seen disproportionately more distress than those in urban India during the lockdowns. Incomes have fallen at some 88% of rural households, compared to 75% at urban households, the study found.
Only 30% of households are able to survive one month or more without additional assistance. “Crucially, 14% of the sample is already out of funds and risks immediate and severe deprivation if they are unable to borrow or receive additional benefits,” the report warned. “Rapid distribution of in-kind or cash transfers is needed to prevent a sharp increase in malnutrition and severe deprivation. Such transfers will also likely promote a more robust recovery as the country is able to reopen.” Nearly two-thirds of urban households that earn less than median income households will run out of resources in two weeks.
