QUETTA: The poverty rate in Balochistan has increased from 40% to 68% during the three months of the lockdown imposed to curb the novel coronavirus, government spokesperson Liaquat Shahwani said on Friday. The number of people below the poverty line in the province were initially 800,000. "The number has, however, shot up to over 1.3 million since February because of the lockdown," he said.

These are people who can't fend for themselves and are surviving under extreme poverty conditions, Shahwani said, adding that 400,000 others have lost their jobs. Most of these people are daily wagers. "It has become very difficult for us to feed our children even twice a day," a labourer said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020