| Welcome to Global Village Space

Thursday, March 28, 2024

PM Imran Khan offers to help India amid COVID economic struggles

PM Imran Khan has made an unexpected gesture to help India fight poverty during the coronavirus, through Pakistan's Ehsaas emergency cash program. A report stated that 34% of Indian households wouldn't be able to survive without assistance.

Pakistan on Thursday offered to help India by sharing its experiences in assisting poor families affected by lockdown measures put in place to curb the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic. PM Imran Khan’s offer to help India came after a devastating report on the economic impact of coronavirus on Indian households.

Prime Minister Imran Khan cited a report published in local media that said 34% of households across India would be unable to make ends meet for more than a week without assistance.

PM Imran Khan offers to help India 

“I am ready to offer help & share our successful cash transfer prog, lauded internationally for its reach & transparency, with India,” Khan tweeted.

Referring to his country’s Ehsaas Emergency Cash program, he said his government successfully transferred 120 billion Pakistani rupees (over $730 million) in nine weeks to over 10 million families in a transparent manner to help deal with the economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the poor.

Pakistan’s Ehsaas cash payment program

In April, following the countrywide lockdown, Khan announced Pakistan’s largest one-off cash payment program to pay around $1 billion to 12 million poverty-stricken families.

“Alhamdulillah! #EhsaasEmergencyCash crosses the 10 million mark in nine weeks. More than 10 million beneficiaries have been served countrywide with Rs.121 billion cash assistance,” Sania Nishtar, head of the program and Khan’s aid on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection, said in her statement.

Cumulatively, so far, 10.019 million deserving families under categories I, II and III of Ehsaas Emergency Cash program have collected financial assistance of Rs.12, 000 each that sums up to Rs. 121.67 billion.

Read more: Ehsaas emergency cash payment distributed to 1 crore families

This amount has been disbursed among the daily wagers, piece-rate workers and labourers till June 11, 2020 since the beginning of the payment operation under Ehsaas Emergency Cash Program on April 9. To facilitate the beneficiaries amid Covid-19 pandemic, Ehsaas has set up more than 10,000 payment sites across the country.

Impact of coronavirus on India

Imran Khan’s offer to help India came after a report last month by the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), saying that millions of young workers in their 20s have lost their jobs because of the lockdown since March 25.

The report further said 33 million in their 30s were also left jobless in April and that 86% of losses were among men.

The economic distress in India caused by lockdown imposed to stem the spread of coronavirus is dire. Nearly 84% of Indian households is seeing decreases in income since the lockdown began. Nearly a third of all households will not be able to survive beyond a week without additional assistance.

“Direct and immediate transfers of food and cash are very high priority,” said Heather Schofield, assistant professor of medical ethics and health policy at the Perelman School of Medicine and a Wharton professor of business economics and public policy.

The economic situation is precarious. “Given the low baseline wealth of many households, a very large share of Indian households state that they will be unable to continue — even over relatively short periods — without additional assistance,” according to the paper. Across India, 34% of households will not be able to survive for more than one week without additional assistance, a survey found.

India is gradually unlocking its economy after a shutdown that lasted more than two months. But it’s unlikely to be business as usual for millions of retailers, small enterprises and factories, writes the BBC’s Nikhil Inamdar. The Coronavirus impact on Indian economy has seen the economy on its knees, with fears growing of the economy not recovering from this pandemic.

Read more: Coronavirus impact on Indian economy: small businesses suffering the most

At least 20% of neighbourhood mobile shops that sell smartphones may never reopen again, says Arvinder Khurana, president of India’s mobile retailers association.

The reasons are many, he adds – on the one hand, owners have fled the cities and are yet to return, and on the other, with job losses mounting and banks averse to offering consumer loans, there is no demand for high-end phones.

According to India’s retail association, sales of non-essential items – such as clothes, electronics, furniture – fell by 80% in May. Even sales of essential goods – such as groceries and medicines – dipped by 40%.

Imran Khan’s offer comes amid tensions between India and Pakistan

Imran Khan’s offer to help India came despite the tension between the two South Asian nuclear neighbors flared up following New Delhi’s scrapping of longstanding special rights for the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region last August.

The Muslim-majority Himalayan region is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars — in 1948, 1965 and 1971 — two of them over Kashmir.

Also, in Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops have fought intermittently since 1984. A cease-fire came into effect in 2003.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.

Thus, given the rising tensions between both countries, Imran Khan’s offer to help India battle poverty during the coronavirus is a highly unexpected one.

 

Anadolu with additional input by GVS News Desk

What are your views on this? Share with us in the comments bar below.