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Coronavirus outbreak will push a vast section deeper into poverty and hunger; governments must take these steps to ease suffering
FirstpostDespite the lockdown, state governments or the Union government should make special provisions to ensure that unemployed workers return home, either to be rid of the burden of paying extra for a roof, or to escape shelters and camps where an outbreak of COVID-19 could spread calamitously. The International Labour Organisation made public a report on 7 April in which it has said that 40 crore people in India will be pushed ‘deeper into poverty’. Oxfam, the global not-for-profit that works on poverty, released a report on 9 April, which said that the COVID-19 pandemic could push a further half a billion people into poverty by the slowdown or cessation of economic activity, which would mean that over half of the world’s population could be living in poverty in the aftermath of the pandemic. At the end of March, Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar had said that the government could look at suggestions for direct cash transfers to unemployed workers, including migrants.
History of this topic
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