Geneva: Praising India’s efforts in combating Covid-19, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday, said that the country’s USD 22.6 billion economic stimulus plan will benefit millions of poor who have been affected by 21-day countrywide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus.
“What India is doing now, as I said in my statement, is very very important. During an economic shutdown, there will economic consequences on the country at large,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the organisation’s headquarters in Geneva.
Noting that the lockdown has triggered supply constraints for essential items and panic buying, leaving the poor and daily labourers most vulnerable, Ghebreyesus also told reporters that India’s USD 22.6 billion economic stimulus plan – announced two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the lockdown – will provide free food rations to at least 800 million disadvantaged people, cash transfers to 204 million poor women and free cooking gas for 80 million households for the next three months.
The government, under the scheme, aims to distribute 5kg of wheat or rice for each person free of cost every month, with 1kg of pulses for every low-income family, helping to feed about 800 million poor people over the next three months.
It also intends to hand out free cooking gas cylinders to 83 million poor families, a one-time cash transfer of USD 13.31 to 30 million senior citizens and USD 6.65 a month to about 200 million poor women for next three months.
“But more importantly, individuals who live on daily subsistence who give their labour for their daily bread have been affected the most due to the lockdown. And that’s why India is taking measures like package which will cover few million individuals during the difficult times,” the Director-General added.
“And that’s the kind of support, we say, should be given,” he stressed.
“Many developing countries will struggle to implement social welfare programmes of this nature,” he said.
