Dhaka: Covid-19 pandemic rendered 51 per cent of Bangladesh's poor people into poverty in 2022, IANS reported citing a top think tank from the country's revelation on Wednesday.
According to Xinhua news agency, the survey Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) inferred that an autonomous multi-disciplinary public research organisation, chronic urban poverty is still at a considerable level even in a growing megacity like the capital Dhaka.
Binayak Sen, director general of the BIDS, said the vulnerability of people should be kept in mind in order to ensure that development is sustainable.
He said evidence shows that a new social category is emerging as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic's impacts on the economy of the country.
He added that about one-tenth of the urban population belonged to this category.
Experts here said earlier that 50 years of Bangladesh's success in poverty alleviation disappeared as at least 20 million people fell below the poverty line during the pandemic.
They also opined that a significant share of 40 million people engaged in informal employment lost their jobs due to the pandemic, along with the price hike of essentials amid the Russia-Ukraine war.