By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, DEC 17, 2020: INDIA and the World Bank on Wednesday signed a USD400 million project to support the nation's efforts at providing social assistance to the poor and vulnerable households severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The programme will strengthen the capability of state and national governments in India to provide coordinated and adequate social protection to the poor and vulnerable from the shocks triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, said a statement from the Ministry of Finance.

The USD400 million credit has been extended by World Bank's concessionary lending arm International Development Association (IDA).

"The COVID-19 crisis has brought to the fore the risks that migrants and the urban poor face and the need for governments to strengthen preparedness for future disasters of this nature," said Dr CS Mohapatra, Additional Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs.

The programme will help further expand and deepen the coverage of India's social protection systems by helping these vulnerable groups in urban and peri-urban areas across the country, he added.

This is the second operation of its kind, building upon the first one of USD 750 million which was approved in May 2020. The first operation by the World Bank followed the government's lead to scale up pre-existing programmes for emergency relief.

"The Second Accelerating India's COVID-19 Social Protection Response Programme will complement the expansion of India's safety net programmes to create a portable social protection platform ensuring food and cash support for poor households, urban migrants, and unorganised sector workers across state boundaries," World Bank Country Director in India Mr Junaid Ahmad said.

Given the continent-like size and heterogeneity in India, the post COVID-19 economic shocks are likely to manifest itself differently at the sub-national, community and household levels, he added.

The proposed operation will allow states to access flexible funding from disaster response funds to design and implement appropriate social protection responses to COVID-19 and future disasters. Given that larger shares of COVID-19 cases in India are currently in urban and peri-urban areas, geographically targeted support to these hot-spot districts will help deepen social protection coverage in urban areas.

The programme was prepared in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) and Kreditanstalt Fur Wiederaufbau (KfW).