The income of the poor remains 42 per cent below the pre-pandemic levels although the economy reopened in June and activities recovered from the near-collapse for the coronavirus-caused shutdown. The resumption has only modestly reversed the steep earnings drop in April and reduced the number of the crisis-caused “new poor” by 1.1 per cent to 21.7 per cent. Food insecurity remains high as 11 per cent of the urban poor, including 15 per cent in Dhaka, do not get three meals a day. Nearly one-third of the poor had to cut consumption to cope with the crisis. And 17 per cent of poor households were still out of work in June, found a new survey by the Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) and BRAC Institute for Governance and Development (BIGD).
The income of the poor remains 42 per cent below the pre-pandemic levels although the economy reopened in June and activities recovered from the near-collapse for the coronavirus-caused shutdown. The resumption has only modestly reversed the steep earnings drop in April and reduced the number of the crisis-caused “new poor” by 1.1 per cent to 21.7 per cent. Food insecurity remains high as 11 per cent of the urban poor, including 15 per cent in Dhaka, do not get three meals a day. Nearly one-third of the poor had to cut consumption to cope with the crisis. And 17 per cent of poor households were still out of work in June, found a new survey by the Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) and BRAC Institute for Governance and Development (BIGD).
