The novel coronavirus outbreak and consequent lockdown for more than two months has greatly affected the people of India. Even today many businesses remain shut, while others continue working with a skeletal staff. There have been many reports of people losing their jobs, and others still are facing pay cuts, delayed salary payments and more.
With there being no cure for the virus thus far, cases continue to rise, and people remain uncertain as to when these changed circumstances would cease. Against this backdrop people have naturally become increasingly frugal in their spending habits.
According to a Livemint report, it is likely that be the end of this month, around 30% of India's urban populace could be out of savings. This in turn can make them unable to cover even basic expenses. A survey suggests that around 84% of households had suffered a financial blow amid the lockdown.
Considering various scenarios, the report postulates that even with a moderate scenario where incomes fell by 62% in urban areas and 50% in rural areas, around 92 million urban Indians and 89 million rural Indians ran out of money even as Lockdown 1.0 came to an end.
We are now in the fifth phase of lockdown, and it is only recently that the restrictions have been limited solely to containment zones.
The Livemint report also takes into account the fact that the government has extended a helping hand to farmers and smaller enterprises. Taking this into consideration the report hypothesises that about 139 million Indians belonging to the urban population would run out of savings by the end of June.
