Poor households spend seven months' income in post-accident care: World Bank
NEW DELHI: A low-income household spends about seven months of its income, while a high household income in India spends less than a month's salary in post-road crash care, a report by the World Bank and SaveLife Foundation has revealed.
The report, Traffic Crash Injuries and Disabilities: The Burden on Indian Society, noted that road crash deaths among poor households were 44 per cent in rural areas compared to 11.6 per cent in urban areas.
"The socio-economic burden of road crashes is disproportionately borne by poor households. The decline in total household income was sharper among LIH (75 per cent) than HIH (54 per cent). The severe impact of the decline in income was highest among LIH in rural areas (56 per cent) compared to LIH in urban areas (29.5 per cent) and HIH rural (39.5 per cent), and cases where victims died as well as where victims were males," the report noted.
Women bore the brunt of caregiving after a crash leading to more financial and mental stress. Women bear the brunt of caregiving activities post-crash, leading to a double burden of labour and mental load and exacerbated inequality of opportunities in returning to livelihoods, it noted.
"Road crashes can have a devastating and disproportionate impact on the poor, thrusting a family into deep poverty. The World Bank is committed to supporting the government in creating safety nets for poor households to ease their financial burden and help them cope with the emergency linked to road crashes," Hartwig Schafer, World Bank vice-president for the South Asia region, said.