TITLE: The impact of covid 19 on global

poverty under worsening growth and

inequality
kuldeep0196@gmail.com

TOPIC: GLOBAL POVERTY AS A NAME: RAVITA

CHALLENGE TO GLOBAL JUSTICE REGISTRATION NO:
LLM [BATCH-2022-23]
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INTRODUCTION

In this paper, we will discuss the impact of COVID-19 on global poverty. And to understand the actual
effect of covid on global poverty. We must first need what we understand by the terms covid and global
poverty individually. And how covid impact the world's poverty negatively. So, It has been more than two
years since the covid-19 pandemic penetrated the deepest core of human civilization and made us realize
the power of mother nature. The covid is a disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The outbreak of covid first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China.
From there, it spread to the globe and drastically affected the whole world and continues to adversely
impacting lives, livelihood, and the economy. Poor all around the world
The Coronavirus pandemic has also become an inequality pandemic. Never before have we seen such a
simultaneous increase in the gulf between the haves and the have-nots around the world. The virus has
exposed, fed off, and increased existing inequalities of wealth, gender, and race. Hundreds of millions of
people are being forced into poverty. While the richest, both individuals and corporations are getting even
richer because of the soaring stock prices. The crisis has exposed the inability of our deeply unequal
economy to work for all. At the same, it’s revealed the vital importance of government action to protect
our health and livelihoods. No part of the world is there which has been untouched by the covid, but the
effects because of COVID have not been evenly shared. The world's poorest have been hit especially hard
by lockdown school closures and disruption to health care. Now we talk about a true example to
understand the situation where we can see the real impact of covid on the poor in a much better way: the
suburbs of Topsia, Calcutta, in our country, where endemic poverty has worsened throughout the
pandemic. Poverty was already there, but covid 19 has made life here even more challenging than it
already was. Masks and disinfectants are too costly for most, and it’s virtually impossible to stick to
coronavirus health regulations.
In the inner city areas of Topsia, a typical Indian family of seven has around 10 square meters of living
space, which means they already have to sleep on bunks and in shifts. On top of that, we tell them to keep
their distance from each other. It would almost be cynical to demand something like that. The
coronavirus lockdown had disastrous effects; an overwhelming majority of the population are daily
laborers. according to a study by action aid, 80 lost their employment as a result of the pandemic. Here
lockdown means starvation. the situation is not that different in many Latin American and African
countries. In early 2012, the international aid organization Oxfam published a study called "inequality
virus" it showed that since march 2020, the number of people living in poverty has risen from 200 million
to 500 million. on top of this, 6000 to 12000 people die each day from starvation. At the end of the day,
many governments in the global south have been forced to make some very difficult decisions. That’s
because the knock-on effects f lockdowns are far more serious for people there than we rich countries in
the global north can really imagine. Additionally, any improvements made to providing access to
education for children have been negated by efforts to curb the pandemic. According to Unesco, more
than 880 million children worldwide have suffered educational disruptions as a result of partial or full
school closures. education is the key factor when it comes to helping people escape poverty, and we now
see that as a result of the pandemic, as many as 33 million school-aged children are not returning to
education. Researchers like Detlef Muleman from the university of Bonn have been collecting data on
coronavirus regulations in Africa. The fact is Africa has young people over 65 who are the most at-risk
age group and makeup just four percent of the population there. In contrast to 20 to 25 percent in the
global north., coronavirus regulations raise the question of whether the tough coronavirus regulations may
end up having far more serious consequences than the pandemic itself. During the pandemic, agriculture
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and trade have suffered. Prices for staple foods have more than tripled. Farmers were not allowed to sell
their goods at markets. The rural medical staff was recalled to the cities. One observation from a project
in Ethiopia is that the government’s actions have resulted in a disruption of relationships at two levels.
First, between rural communities, neighboring small towns and large cities, and the capital, and secondly,
to a certain extent, between the rural population and state institutions. Former german development
minister Gerard muller has said quote far more people will die from the consequences of the lockdowns
than from the virus itself. Maria Flachsbart, former parliamentary state secretary to the federal minister of
economic cooperation and development about what long-term damage could come from the pandemic
restrictions. She said the worst consequence of the pandemic has clearly been hunger. Those in informal
jobs don’t qualify for government relief spending, nor do they have health insurance. the second direct
impact is not only the effect on health from the coronavirus itself but rather the interruption to wider
vaccination distribution of all kinds, for example, to vaccination programs against measles, yellow fever,
and whooping cough. on the African continent alone, experts are predicting an additional 400000 deaths
due to malaria and HIV, along with another half a million deaths from tuberculosis. Although these
numbers are very high, few people are paying attention to the problem of tuberculosis. the same thing is
happening in India, where all the focus is on covid 19. According to a german doctor Tobias Vogt who
works in the suburbs of Calcutta he said when he started 20 years ago, around 500000 people a year died
from tuberculosis, which is slightly improved now, about 35000 annually. These figures are on the rise
again, and yet they are rarely reported. On one side effect of the global fight against covid 19 has been
that the overall global health situation is deteriorating. Tourism has also largely collapsed worldwide. 25
African countries are on the verge of national bankruptcy. Germany's foreign development minister called
for a 50 billion euro stabilization program made up of European loans and emergency aid. And
organizations like Oxfam are calling for an internationally financed global social security fund. time is of
the essence. We need more money and more people to commit to fighting both the immediate and long-
term consequences of the pandemic; otherwise, it will come back to haunt us. that’s because the worse the
situation gets, the more people will try to flee poverty and disease leading to more migration without
much-needed aid. The global south may be set back decades in its development, but right now,
industrialized nations are busy with their own crises. The inequality virus will likely cause long-term
damage around the world.
why are not vaccines still not universally available? Many of the experts tend to talk about two different
aspects of this issue the first is vaccine shortages which are caused by factors rooted mostly in logistics
for instance, the fact that production of any medical product is going to be limited by bottlenecks in
upstream feedstocks the ingredients that go into it simply takas time to ramp up the entire production
chain of these highly specialized vaccines to the kinds of scales that we need to fight a global pandemic
the challenges surrounding vaccine transport and distribution also contribute to shortages but at least the
vaccine shortage problem is theoretically solvable . have to get production to speed and we are doing that
but the same can’t be said for other factors that have gotten in the way of universal availability they’re
what the experts mean when they talk about vaccine inequities the program that was supposed to prevent
them the covid initiative has struggled from the begining to meet distribution targets for pooerer countries
not only because the logistics are hard but because wealthier countries quickly snapped up nearly all of
the available stocks for their own populations according to the WHO vaccine manufacturers are currently
churning out around one and a half billion doses of vaccine every month so the issue has now become a
lot less about shortages and a lot more about ongoing lopsided allocation and that’s continuing even
though we know that the fastest way to end the pandemic is to make vaccines universally available .
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Why are not vaccines still not universally available? The first aspect of this problem that many experts
tend to discuss is vaccine shortages, which are brought on by mostly logistical factors. For instance, the
fact that production of any medical product is going to be limited by bottlenecks in upstream feedstocks.
It simply takes time to ramp up the entire production chain of these highly specialized vaccines to the
kinds of scales necessary to combat a global pandemic, given the ingredients that go into it. Although the
issue of vaccine shortages is theoretically solvable, the difficulties associated with vaccine transport and
distribution also contribute to shortages. We have to get production to speed, and we are doing that, but
the same can’t be said for other factors that have gotten in the way of universal availability. They’re what
the experts mean when they talk about vaccine inequalities. The program that was supposed to prevent
them, the covid initiative, has struggled from the beginning to meet distribution targets for poorer
countries not only because the logistics are complicated but because wealthier countries quickly snapped
up nearly all of the available stocks for their own populations The WHO reports that vaccine
manufacturers are currently producing approximately 1.5 billion doses of vaccine each month, so the
problem is no longer one of the shortages but rather one of ongoing lopsided allocation. This is taking
place despite the fact that we are aware that making vaccines widely available will have the greatest effect
on the rapid end of the pandemic.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is observed in every sector around the world. The corona
pandemic is unprecedented in our lifetimes, infecting millions and killings thousands of people.
Coronavirus after effects will be reflected even years after in the form of inequalities. At the same time,
we are all floating on the same sea. It's clear that some are in super-yachts while others are clinging to the
drifting debris. And those who are clinging to the drifting debris are none other than the poor people. This
time impacted not only the poor of one country but all the world's poor people. Although a pandemic does
not attack the people after looking at their background but their lifestyle, their inaccessibility to primary
resources makes them vulnerable to the disease.
COVID-19
A research1 conducted by King’s college London and the Australian Natinal University on behalf of the
charity group Oxfam. According to the research, which was also published in the forbes magazine in
2020, the Coronavirus could push half a billion people into poverty unless urgent and dramatic action is
taken. This research also estimated the short-term impact  of the coronavirus on global monetary poverty
based on World Bank poverty lines of $1.90, $3.20 and $5.50 a day. Other than this research there are
various data available provided by many different institutes one of the data provided by the world bank.
According to world bank2, it predicted that the pandemic will push an additional 150 million people into
extreme poverty by the end of 2021. And in its latest report 3 titled poverty and share prosperity 2022:
Correcting Cousre, world bank said that in reality , approximately 71 million people across the globe may
have been pushed into extreme poiverty due to the pandemic
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