Nearly 80% of people pushed into poverty by Covid were from India

According to World Bank estimates, 8 out of every 10 people pushed into extreme poverty as a result of the coronavirus pandemic were Indians.

The report titled "Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022" states that an estimated 71 million people across the globe may have been pushed into poverty due to the pandemic that hit the world at the end of 2019.

The report added that India, one of the most populous countries in the world, accounted for 56 million of the estimated 71 million.

This essentially implies that about 80 percent of the 70 million people who slipped below the poverty line were Indians. The report noted that there was a "pronounced economic contraction" in 2020.

The World Bank report used data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) because the Indian government has not released official estimates of poverty since 2011.

The report highlighted that the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have only worsened the situation for the world. The poor were "disproportionately" affected by the economic slowdown.

The pandemic has ensured that the world will be unable to meet its goal of ending poverty by 2030, writes The Independent.

"The war in Ukraine and higher food and energy prices have made matters worse. A total of 685 million people could be living in extreme poverty by the end of this year—nearly 90 million more than would have been the case if the pre-COVID pace of poverty reduction had continued," the report said.

The global extreme poverty rate has increased from 8.4 percent in 2019 to 9.3 percent in 2020. In simple terms, the number of global poor increased by 71 million people.

Even though the most populous countries were the biggest contributors, China was one exception. It did not contribute much to the global poverty increase in 2020.

The country only experienced a "moderate economic shock in 2020," adds the report. It also observed that the economic recovery from the pandemic has been uneven, with the rich economies recovering at a much faster rate than low-and middle-income economies.