PANDEMIC FALLOUT

A key fallout of COVID-19 is that the economic disparities within countries will get further exacerbated. Unemployment has risen in almost all countries. Hundreds of millions of citizens in India and China, who had been lited out of poverty, will sink back into poverty. About 19 million formal, salaried jobs have been lost in India, ater the lockdowns. Many of the migrant workers who let the cities and went back to the villages, have yet to return to the cities or to find work.

COVID-19 will augment the disparities between the rich and the poor worldwide. The world was already geting fractured, due to stagnant economies and weak growth rates. There has been mounting turmoil in the world based on ethnicity, religion, caste, skin colour and country of origin. In the USA, large sections of the Afro-americans, Hispanics and Asians vote together. In India, religion has started playing a role in the elections.

The stresses triggered by race and religion are really due to the fact that the global economy has been growing at a mingy 2 to 3 percent per annum, during the last many years. Now COVID-19 could see the world going into a recession, with 1 per cent growth or nil. When there is growth and prosperity, people do not bother about the colour of the skin. It is only when opportunities shrink, that people get obsessed with tribe and caste.

Thus, in 2021, global leaders should focus seriously on boosting the global growth back to 3 per cent, to fight the impact of Covid-19 and reduce the impact of race and religion in the world.

Rajendra Aneja Mumbai