WHO has set a target of vaccinating 70 percent of the global population by mid of June 2022. But poor countries like Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, and Sudan vaccinated less than 3 percent.
The year 2021 will go down as one of the most turbulent years in the century, millions of people died across the globe, and hundreds of thousands of people died in India due to the pandemic. The pandemic also triggered the worst economic crisis since 1930. Major economies lost at least 4% of their GDP in 2020 and 2021. Due to that, governments’ revenues such as income tax, GST, etc., have declined. In addition to that, it also led to employment loss, low salaries, and demand fall, low inflation, etc. On the other hand expenses have increased, i.e., on healthcare, vaccination to their citizens, welfare schemes, etc.
Since 2020, the pandemic has disrupted health services and stretched the global health system beyond its limits as they struggle to fight with Covid-19. It made difficult for people to pay for healthcare. Due to the pandemic, millions of poor people were pushed into extreme poverty; middle-class people were pushed below the poverty line because of their health care payments. The pandemic hit worst on more vulnerable groups like informal sector, daily wage labour. An additional 207 million people in the world could be pushed below the poverty line by 2030 due to Pandemic and eventual lockdowns. The total number of extreme world poverty will rise to more than a billion. Due to this, child labor and trafficking are set to rise. More than 8 million children are being forced into begging and child labor in Asia alone because their parents cannot afford to buy enough food. In addition to this, the USA withdrawal from Afghan and Taliban ruling also fuel the situation, 97 per cent of Afghan people will be pushed to below poverty by mid of June 2022.
The pandemic has also disrupted trade and investments, especially in tourism, aviation, and manufacturing sectors and millions of people lost their jobs in these sectors. During this crisis, some sectors like E-commerce, IT, pharma, and healthcare industries benefited from Covid-19 and showed some economic growth to control the damage caused by the pandemic.
When we look at India’s 2021, India witnessed the second Covid wave in march, which was much more devastating than the first, and more than 4 lakh people died due to Covid, and millions of people suffered from Covid. On the other hand, India had vaccinated more than 145 crore people in 2021. Now India is vaccinating the ages 15 to 18 from 1st, January 2022 and is ready to give booster doses to frontline workers and above 60 people. It is a significant achievement for a developing country like India. But at the same time, Pandemic in India led to large-scale job cuts, Shutting down the Industries and MSMEs and catastrophic income shocks, etc. Pre-Covid times, around 26.5 crore rural people were poor, now it’s expected to rise 40 crore people. Another 4 to 5 crore people will be pushed into the poverty line in the urban. That means additional 20 crore people will be pushed into poverty this year. The government of India announced 1,70,000 crore rupees for economic relief to the poor to address these issues. Still, it needs to be careful in implementing National Food Security, Direct Cash transfer, Health Insurance, MNREGA, and Other welfare schemes. These schemes can prevent extreme poverty and impoverishment.
One good news during this crisis was that scientists invented vaccine for the corona in a short period, and it could help the world protect itself from the virus. Though the invention of vaccines is good news to the world, no one is safe from Covid-19 until everyone is safe and vaccinated. Due to the disparity of Vaccination, new variants may emerge, and it may weaken the vaccines. WHO has set a target of vaccinating 70 percent of the global population by mid of June 2022. However, developed countries like the USA and UK have vaccinated more than 60 percent of their population.
On the other hand, poor countries like Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, and Sudan vaccinated less than 3 percent. There could be many reasons for vaccination disparity, i.e., wealthy countries hold more vaccines for their citizens and the high cost of western vaccines. A country like India can only address the disparity in vaccine access. India produced 31 crore vaccines in December. The remaining 15 crore vaccines will be exported to poor countries. On the other hand, though most developed countries vaccinated their people against Covid-19, they are witnessing the fourth wave. Once again, it increases the pressure on the global governments.
(The author is a Research Scholar at IIT-Varanasi and General Secretary, Towards Better India)
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