Families forced into poverty - 'I stay hungry so I can feed my children'

NEW DELHI • Ms Rasheeda Jaleel lives in fear that she may not be able to feed her seven children, as millions of Indian families are forced into poverty by a devastating new coronavirus wave.

The 40-year-old, her husband Abdul Jaleel, 65, and children already survive on just one meal a day. "When we are hungry and thirsty, I feel very helpless and worry, 'How am I going to survive like this?'" Ms Jaleel said as she made roti (flatbread) for the solitary meal in their tiny New Delhi flat.

"We manage with whatever my husband is able to earn. If it's not enough, I stay hungry so I can feed my children."

The coronavirus has killed 160,000 in eight weeks, overwhelmed hospitals and shut many businesses in India. Experts warn that another crisis is looming, with rising levels of hunger among the poor who were already reeling from a first lockdown last year.

Ms Anjali Bhardwaj from the Right to Food Campaign said: "It's a double crisis that the poor in the country are facing - there is the health crisis and there is also an income economic crisis.

"We have had a huge health crisis unfolding... and many have had to spend their life savings on trying to provide medical aid to their families."

About 230 million Indians fell into poverty - defined as living on less than 375 rupees (S$6.90) a day - in the first year of the pandemic, according to a study by Bangalore's Azim Premji University.

More than 7.3 million jobs were lost last month alone, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy. That means more pain in a country where 90 per cent of the workforce is in the informal sector, with no social safety net, and where millions do not qualify for government rations.

"A lot of people went into poverty last year, they went into debt, and... they had to cut back on food consumption," said Associate Professor Amit Basole, one of the study's authors. "So the second wave is coming on top of a very precarious, stressed situation."

Mr Jaleel became a rickshaw driver to feed his family after construction work dried up during a fresh Delhi lockdown. Previously, he brought home up to 500 rupees a day. Now, his income is as little as 100 rupees a day.

"And on some days, I don't make anything," he said. "As parents, we will have to make ends meet somehow, whether we beg, borrow or steal. We have no choice."

During last year's lockdown, about 100 million people in India lost their jobs. After restrictions were lifted, around 15 per cent failed to find employment by the end of last year, including 47 per cent of female workers, the Azim Premji University study found.

Many who returned to work had to settle for lower pay, leaving them more vulnerable when the second wave hit.

Meanwhile, an estimated 100 million Indians have no ration cards to give them access to food aid, said Ms Bhardwaj.

The Right to Food organisation has been campaigning for emergency food supplies to be given to the needy, even if they do not have ration cards. With the pandemic unravelling years of poverty reduction, experts warn that many could remain trapped in a vicious circle of hardship, even after lockdowns are lifted.

"The fear is that we... get locked into a longish-term depressed economy where there is low aggregate demand because people's jobs and incomes are not coming back. And because they are not coming back, it... perpetuates its own cycle," Prof Basole said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE