No doubt there is poverty in Pakistan. however,
The biggest Poor country is INDIA where more than 500-MILLION PEOPLE LIVE BELOW POVERTY LINE. And so is the USA with millions in poverty. Before the COVID, 45 Million Americans lived below poverty line officially whereas unofficial number is much higher. Now this number has DOUBLED due to Covid!
The United States government has made little progress in stemming the rise in poverty and inequality during the Covid-19 pandemic. The government should take urgent action to address the rights of millions of people suffering the compounded economic and social impacts of the pandemic.
www.hrw.org
(Washington, DC) – The
United States government has made little progress in stemming the rise in
poverty and
inequality during the
Covid-19 pandemic, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should take urgent action to address the rights of millions of people suffering the compounded economic and social impacts of the pandemic.
A Human Rights Watch analysis of
public-use microdata from the Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey
shows that the pandemic’s economic fallout has had a devastating and disproportionate impact on the rights of low-income people who were already struggling. President Joe Biden’s
American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill passed by the US House of Representatives on February 27, 2021, provides key investments to mitigate the growing economic hardship affecting these parts of the population. The legislation is now with the Senate, where it may be amended before it is sent back to the House for a final vote.
“Millions of people in the US are falling into preventable poverty and hunger,” said
Lena Simet, senior poverty and inequality researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The measures put forth in President Biden's relief proposal are urgently needed and the government shouldn’t cut corners when so many lives and livelihoods are at risk.”
Since the start of the pandemic,
74.7 million people have lost work, with the majority of jobs lost in industries that pay
below average wages. Many of those who lost work and income are running out of money and savings. In January, some
24 million adults reported experiencing hunger and
more than six million said they fear being evicted or foreclosed on in the next two months due to their inability to make housing payments. By contrast, higher-income people have been relatively unscathed economically. Despite the
worst economic contraction since the Great Depression, the collective wealth of the
US’ 651 billionaires has jumped by over $1 trillion since the beginning of the pandemic, a 36 percent leap.