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The survey conducted by a Mumbai-based think-tank People’s Research on India’s Consumer Economy (PRICE) between between April and October 2021, covered 200,000 households in the first round and 42,000 households in the second round. It was spread over 120 towns and 800 villages across 100 districts.The pandemic brought economic activity to a standstill for at least two quarters in 2020-21 and resulted in a 7.3% contraction in GDP in 2020-21, and the survey underscored that the pandemic hit the urban poor most and eroded their household income.Splitting the population across five categories based on income, the survey shows that while the poorest 20% (first quintile) witnessed the biggest erosion of 53%, the second lowest quintile (lower middle category), too, witnessed a decline in their household income of 32% in the same period. While the quantum of erosion reduced to 9% for those in the middle income category, the top two quintiles — upper middle (20%) and richest (20%)— saw their household income rise by 7% and 39% respectively.The survey shows that the richest 20% of households have added more income per household and more pooled income as a group in the past five years than in any five-year period earlier since liberalisation. Exactly the opposite has happened for the poorest 20% of households, on average, they earned half as much as they did in 2016.
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Income of the poorest 20% of Indians plummeted by 53%; income of the richest grew by 39%
