Will Covid decimate India’s middle class?

Millions of Indians risk being knocked back into poverty by the current explosion in coronavirus infections.

Rahul Tandon hears from Radhika, who abruptly lost her job in Mumbai when India went into lockdown last year, and has since struggled with thoughts of suicide. Newspaper columnist Sandip Roy discusses how Covid threatens to strip many self-identifying middle class of their sense of comfort and security. Meanwhile, many women who run their own businesses face ruin, according Renu Shah, who runs Shakti - an organisation that helps women entrepreneurs.

We also hear opposing views on how big a setback the middle class faces from Covid from two leading Indian economists - Pravin Krishna of John Hopkins University, and Jayati Ghosh of Jawaharlal Nehru University.

(Picture: A Covid-19 patient in Gurudwara, India; Credit: Naveen Sharma/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)