Covid pushed 51% of Bangladesh's poor into poverty

Dhaka, May 17 (IANS) The fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed 51 per cent of Bangladesh's poor people into poverty in 2022, the country's leading think tank said on Wednesday.

According to a survey by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), an autonomous multi-disciplinary public research organisation, urban chronic poverty is still at a considerable level even in a growing megacity like capital Dhaka, reports Xinhua news agency.

Binayak Sen, director general of the BIDS, said the vulnerability of people should be kept in mind in order to ensure that development is sustainable.

He said evidence shows that a new social category is emerging as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic impacts on the economy of the country.

He added that about one-tenth of the urban population belonged to this category.

Experts here said earlier that 50 years of Bangladesh's success in poverty alleviation disappeared as at least 20 million people fell below the poverty line during the pandemic.

They said that a significant share of 40 million people engaged in informal employment lost their jobs due to the pandemic and price hike of essentials amid the Russia-Ukraine war.

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