Addressing Poverty in Post Pandemic Society

Societies around the world are rapidly transforming and experiencing various unprecedented social challenges such as – globalization, poverty, hunger, inequality, unemployment, health crisis, gender disparity, climate change, land dispossession, war, etc. Global poverty is considered one of the most important social evils. In 2015 United Nations adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030 and eradication of poverty is the very first goal as a tagline “Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere” within it. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has jeopardized the very first sustainable development goal and resulted in a negative impact. The COVID-19 pandemic has been an added disadvantage to contemporary social issues. Societies across the globe have not only been in tremendous health crises but encountered several challenges as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid-lockdown in 2019-21 spans. Poverty cannot be analyzed through the income dimension only; while the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) includes both social and economic dimensions. The nuance analysis of poverty through the lens of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) has revealed that the policy responses (lockdown, strict human mobility, closure of schools, etc.) lead to 8 to 9 years of set-back in MPI, and around 5 years (approximately) of set-back in educational attendance due to global pandemic hit. However, ascertaining the incidence of poverty for policy implication has been a difficult task due to the lack of household survey data and constantly changing social realities. Moreover, the global pandemic has added a different dimension to global poverty.

In this context, the editors are keen to include the following themes as a part of this topical collection:

• Understanding the poverty (new dimension, patterns etc.) in post-COVID Society;

• Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on poverty;

• Approaches, measures of poverty;

• Poverty and Marginalized Community;

• Poverty and Post-pandemic policies;

• Poverty and inequality;

• Multidimensional Poverty analysis for the vulnerable populations;

• Poverty reduction strategy;

• Social welfare policy in the context of poverty;

• Poverty alleviation programs and policies in context of pandemic;

• Case study related to poverty and poverty reduction strategy;

• Sustainable Development Goals and Poverty;

• Challenges for achieving Sustainable Development Goals in post-pandemic society;

Keywords: Redevelopment, Poverty, Poverty Reduction Strategy, Inequality, COVID-19 Pandemic, Globalization, Multi-Dimensional Poverty, Social Welfare, Vulnerability