PM offers to share Ehsaas cash transfer scheme with India

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday offered to share with India the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s “successful cash transfer programme” that could help the country stave off the negative fallout of Covid-19 on underprivileged people.

“I am ready to offer help and share our successful cash transfer programme, lauded internationally for its reach and transparency, with India,” the Prime Minister said in a tweet, sharing a report that warned 34 per cent of households across India would not be able to survive for more than a week without assistance.

The Prime Minister said his government successfully transferred Rs120 billion in nine weeks to over 10 million families in a transparent manner.

A study titled ‘How are Indian households coping under the Covid-19 lockdown? Eight key findings’, carried out by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago and the Mumbai-based Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE) reveals that nearly 84 per cent of Indian households is seeing decreases in income since the lockdown began.

Nearly a third of all households will not be able to survive beyond a week without additional assistance. “Direct and immediate transfers of food and cash are very high priority,” said Heather Schofield, assistant professor of medical ethics and health policy at the Perelman School of Medicine and a Wharton professor of business economics and public policy.

The study found a “sharp and broad negative impact on household income” as the pandemic diminished their staying capacity, adding that the unemployment rate in the country had crossed 27 per cent in early May, up nearly four-fold from levels in January-February.

The fall in incomes affected people in the lower and middle segments of the income distribution most severely, the study found. “Households in the lowest of the five income groups had average monthly per-capital earnings of less than Rs3,800 (about $50), while those at the high end made between Rs12,374 and upwards of Rs1 lakh ($167 to $1,370 and more).”

Households in the middle-income groups are hurt disproportionately more perhaps because they are most likely to be dependent on sources of income that are hit due to the lockdown, the study’s authors stated.

Rural households have seen disproportionately more distress than those in urban India during the lockdowns. Incomes have fallen at some 88 per cent of rural households, compared to 75 per cent at urban households, the study found.

Only 30 per cent of households are able to survive one month or more without additional assistance. “Crucially, 14 per cent of the sample is already out of funds and risks immediate and severe deprivation if they are unable to borrow or receive additional benefits,” the report warned.

“Rapid distribution of in-kind or cash transfers is needed to prevent a sharp increase in malnutrition and severe deprivation. Such transfers will also likely promote a more robust recovery as the country is able to reopen.”

The need for additional resources is also affected by where the household is located. “The urban poor have the least time before their resources are depleted,” the study said.

Nearly two-thirds of urban households that earn less than median income households will run out of resources in two weeks. Rural households in similar income groups have relatively more resilience, the study found, as 54 per cent of them have sufficient resources for the same period of time.

The five states with households in most urgent need for funds — based upon two-week survival — are Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Haryana, and Telangana are among the most resilient over a two-week period.

“The need for resources — such as sustained and broad base of transfers — is urgent as nearly all households will be unable to survive without transfers in the medium-run,” the study said.