By Aroussa Hafeez

India has continued COVID-19 surge is hitting record new high deaths and infections. The country has reported death toll 250,025 and infections to 22.7 million. With the increase in Coronavirus patients, the country is also witnessing decreased economic activity. India is one of those countries which is affected the most in the world by the pandemic. To contain the spread of coronavirus, Indian government implemented nationwide lockdown in March 2020, which continued till May 2020 and the lockdown which was imposed in March was extended many times. The restrictions due to COVID-19 halted economic activities which caused hundreds and thousands of daily wage earners to lose their jobs.

Currently the country is struggling to contain coronavirus infections in the country which are rising at an alarming rate. Where the coronavirus cases continues to grow every passing day, the lockdowns and the pandemic took a toll on the economy. The growth prospects in the country is collapsing. Last year in May 2020, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced 20 trillion rupees ($266 billion) in fiscal and monetary measures to support an economic fallout by a sweeping weeks-long lockdown to fight with coronavirus pandemic. However, according to economist this package was very less to stimulate growth and the recovery trajectory is predicted to be weak.

Second wave of coronavirus presents greater risks for growth of middle class Indian citizen. Due to spiked coronavirus cases, the imposed lockdown in country has decreased economic activity in the country. India’s poor are bearing the burnt again just like they did in previous year. Poor citizens of India have not recovered from the lockdown imposed in the previous year and again due to the unprecedented surge of coronavirus cases only lower income class in the country will be affected.

Second wave of coronavirus pushed India's middle class toward poverty. The life of millions of middle-class Indian citizens is under threat. According to Pew Research center, in last year approximately 32 million people in India were driven into poverty due to the pandemic, accounting for a majority of the 54 million who slipped out of the middle class worldwide. A year into the pandemic, the numbers of those in the middle class has shrunk to 66 million, down a third from a pre-pandemic estimate of 99 million, the report added.

"The number of people who are poor in India (with incomes of $2 or less a day) is estimated to have increased by 75 million because of the COVID-19 recession. This, too, accounts for nearly 60% of the global increase in poverty," the study said.

On April 13, 2021 credit rating agency Moody's said the second wave of coronavirus infections and the measures to contain it can weaken the economic recovery in India. Undoubtedly, the healthy growth forecast of lower income class in India seems far away. The surge of COVID-19 is undoing the decades of progress and throwing millions of people into poverty. However, the BJP government of Modi has defended its handling of pandemic. The reckless policies of Indian government and disarray has thrown millions of citizens into poverty. Hardly, now any of the government official is taking responsibility. Lack of employment, fall in incomes is continuously shrinking middleclass.

The failure and mismanagement of the Indian government has brought people to the brink where poor people life is at risk. Irony is that these poor people are those who cheered for Modi during elections. This time Modi government is unwilling to repeat last year’s lockdown, which left millions of Indian citizens jobless. Today, the spike in coronavirus pandemic in India is not just mass human sufferings but complete government failure. India’s arrival as a global power is pronounced ahead of time because the current situation in the country shows that Indian government is unable to handle the crisis. Recent challenges have brought to fore Indian government.

In the context of recent economic slowdown around the world due to pandemic, middle class in India has been greatly affected by the economic strike. The overall growth for the year may not be alarming but it hides more than it reveals because the surge of coronavirus in India has pushed the poor man to poverty and it will take long to finish the poverty from the country. Most of the growth this year was taken place only during the first quarter when the effect of pandemic was less and was not felt so serious. However, a lot depends on the situation in coming days but huge economic disparities in the country will not allow little men to grow that early. Albeit, a policy of actively supporting the demand of labors and poor man in country could help them achieve their livelihood and overcome poverty.