Hyderabad: The COVID crisis will push 4.7 crores of women and girls into extreme poverty reports the new data released by the United Nations. Decades of progress in bringing this population above the poverty line will decline again, the report added.
“The global coronavirus epidemic will greatly affect women. By 2021, the Corona crisis will push 4.7 crores of women and girls into extreme poverty,” report adds.
This new assessment by the United Nations Program for Women and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) indicated that the COVID-19 crisis would increase the poverty rate of women and widen the gap between women and men living in poverty.
The poverty rate for women is expected to decrease by 2.7% between 2019 and 2021, but due to the global epidemic and its consequences, it is now expected to rise to 9.1%.
The United Nations said: “By 2021, the global epidemic will push 9.6 million people into extreme poverty, of which 4.7 crore will be women and girls. This crisis will bring the total number of women living in extreme poverty to 43.5 crore. It is estimated that by 2030 these numbers will not be able to return to pre-global epidemic levels.
Phumzile Mlambo Ngakuka, Executive Director of the United Nations Association of Women (UN Women), said: “This increase in extreme women’s poverty shows the deep gaps in the way we have built our societies and economies. “
It is estimated that the global epidemic will affect global poverty in the world at large, but women will be severely affected. Among them, especially women of childbearing age will be more affected. By 2021, 118 women for every 100 men aged 25 to 34 will live in extreme poverty. This difference will be 121 women for every 100 men by 2030.