Now Money Decides Lives

As COVID-19 makes inroads in rural India, state GDP losses will kill more people than the disease

- Kiran Pandey And Rajit Sengupta

India’s tally from the unyielding novel coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic has breached the 3 million mark; the death toll: nearly 58,000 and counting. Chances are that this march won’t stop even when the outbreak ceases. A poor infrastructure to deal with covid-19 and unplanned entries and exits into and from lockdowns may end up prolonging the pain. According to a report released by the State Bank of India on August 17, states, on an average, will see a 16.8 per cent drop in their gross domestic product (gdp) in 2020-21 (FY21). It adds that even a 10 per cent reduction is enough to push the mortality rate in the states by 0.6-3.6 per cent. In Uttar Pradesh, for instance, covid-19 deaths alone will increase the state’s overall mortality rate by 0.16 percent, whereas the state gdp contraction will push the mortality rate by a further 3.4 per cent, which is more than half of the state’s current mortality rate. Similarly, Delhi will add 2.42 per cent to the existing mortality rate. Of this, 2.14 per cent will be added due to gdp contraction.