An estimated 6.5 per cent of the 4.2 million Indian-Americans are living below the poverty line and the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to increase the poverty among members of the community, according to a latest research.

Results of the research “A Study of Poverty in the Indian American Population,” conducted by Devesh Kapur and Jashan Bajwaat of Johns Hopkins’ Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, were released during the Indiaspora Philanthropy Summit 2020 on Thursday.

The incident of poverty is greater among Bengali and Punjabi speaking Indian Americans, Kapoor said. About one-third are not in the labour force and about a fifth of them are not American citizens, Kapoor said.

“With this report, we wanted to draw attention to the plight of the most underprivileged Indian Americans,” said MR Rangaswami, founder of Indiaspora.

“With COVID-19 wrecking health and economic havoc, this is an appropriate moment to raise awareness and discuss the issue of poverty that exists in our otherwise affluent community. We hope that the report will lead to an increased focus on this topic, followed by targeted measures to make a positive difference,” Rangaswami said.

According to Kapoor, while the study provides a detailed analysis of the impoverished populations of the Indian American community, Indian Americans are still less likely to be living in poverty compared to white, Black and Hispanic Americans.

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