Pandemic pushed 32m Indians out of middle class

Financial woes brought by last year's coronavirus pandemic have pushed about 32 million Indians out of the middle class, undoing years of economic gains, a report showed yesterday, while job losses pushed millions into poverty.

A year into the pandemic, the numbers of those in the middle class, who earns between $10 and $20 a day, has shrunk to 66 million, down a third from a pre-pandemic estimate of 99 million, the US-based Pew Research Centre said.

Nearly 57 million people had joined the middle income group between 2011 and 2019, it added.

The Pew Centre estimated the number of poor people, with incomes of $2 or less each day, has gone up by 75 million as the recession brought by the virus has clawed back years of progress.