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Plight of middle class during the pandemic

It is more than two months that the nationwide lockdown is imposed in India due to the COVID-19 pandemic


Sentinel Digital DeskBy : Sentinel Digital Desk

  |  1 Jun 2020 4:59 AM GMT

It is more than two months that the nationwide lockdown is imposed in India due to the COVID-19 pandemic which took the global economy for a toss. The government, along with the help of the abiding citizens of the country, is trying its best to keep things under control by means of social distancing, sanitization, usage of masks and most importantly by staying indoors which is indeed the need of the hour.

Also, due to this prevailing crisis we have witnessed the support of the government, various NGOs, charity homes and general people as a whole to uplift the economically backward people. Government is providing various subsidies and schemes for poor people as a helping hand and standing beside them during this tough time.

However, what concerns me the most today is the economic condition of the middle class people, more specifically the small-scale businessmen. They are the people whose entire livelihood depends on income from their shops. Now, due to the nationwide lockdown the markets are closed and so their income has come to a halt. However, the expenses like their shop rent, house rent, staff's salary, capital loans are needed to be paid on time. Apart from this, there are other expenses too, like medical expenses, household expenses, policy premiums, electricity/telephone bill, education and house loan, and the list of expenditure goes so. Whatever little saving a person may be holding is already being used in these two months and some more is kept reserved for future payments due to financial crunches. These immense losses are definitely going to hamper middle class families in the long run.

However, we don't see either Government or the media raising concern or taking any major step to address this problem. If we want to avoid a state of anarchy the issues pertaining to the middle class people's needs to be appropriately highlighted to get the rightful attention. It's high time the Government needs did things to help middle class section tide over the situation.

Sumita Deb,


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