Coronavirus impact: Over 100 million Indians could fall below poverty line

Job losses, destruction of informal sector and inadequate government support could push India back by a decade in poverty-reduction progress

As the Narendra Modi-led central government continues to pick pieces in the puzzle to rein in the coronavirus pandemic in India, the economic costs of the nationwide lockdown on millions of poor could be catastrophic. Projections based on a recent analysis by researchers at the United Nations University (UNU) show that, in the worst case scenario, 104 million more people in India could fall below the World Bank-determined poverty line of $3.2 a day for lower-middle-income countries. At present, 60 per cent of India’s population, or an estimated 812 million people, live below that poverty line.

In effect, the coronavirus