By D. W. G. Kalani Tharanga, JadeTimes News
Significant Decline in Life Expectancy and Elevated Mortality Rates
The COVID 19 pandemic has left a profound impact on populations worldwide, and one way to measure this impact is by examining life expectancy. A team of ten researchers from the UK, the US, and Europe studied the mortality effects of the pandemic in India, focusing on differences by sex, social group, and age. Their peer reviewed study, published in Science Advances, reveals a stark picture, life expectancy at birth in India decreased by 2.6 years in 2020 compared to 2019, and mortality rates rose by 17%. This translates to 1.19 million excess deaths in 2020 alone, a simple yet stark indicator of the pandemic's toll, showing how many more people died than expected based on previous years.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that COVID 19 caused 4.7 million deaths in India, nearly ten times the official figure reported. The new study suggests that life expectancy declines in India were more pronounced and affected younger age groups more significantly than in high income countries. Mortality increased across all age groups, but the impact was particularly severe among younger individuals, leading to a sharper drop in life expectancy. This indicates a demographic shift in pandemic related mortality that is unique to India compared to wealthier nations.
Disproportionate Impact on Women and Marginalized Groups
The researchers uncovered additional worrying trends. Women experienced a more significant decline in life expectancy one year greater than men highlighting the role of gender inequality. This contrasts with patterns observed in most other countries, where the impact was more evenly distributed between sexes. Marginalized social groups, including Muslims, Dalits, and tribespeople, saw more substantial declines in life expectancy than privileged upper caste individuals, exacerbating pre existing disparities.
Prior to the pandemic, these marginalized groups already faced significant disadvantages in life expectancy. The pandemic worsened these disparities, with declines comparable to or even greater than those seen among Native Americans, Blacks, and Hispanics in the US in 2020. Sangita Vyas of CUNY Hunter College, one of the researchers, emphasized that these findings highlight the unequal mortality impacts during the pandemic in the world's most populous country. The WHO's 2022 report estimated that over 4.7 million people in India died due to COVID 19, a figure much higher than official records, which the Indian government has contested due to perceived methodological flaws.
The study examined deaths from all causes, not just COVID 19, revealing that the increase in overall mortality was greater for women than men. This suggests that the pandemic's impact on women was not just from the virus itself but also from broader disruptions to healthcare and livelihoods. Previous research indicates that Indian households typically spend less on healthcare for females than males, a disparity likely exacerbated during the pandemic. Surveys show similar infection rates among males and females, yet fewer women appeared in India's official COVID 19 case data. The pandemic also severely disrupted maternal healthcare and livelihoods due to lockdowns, contributing to these trends.
The researchers derived their findings from data on over 765,000 individuals, representing a quarter of India's population. The National Family Health Survey 5 provided high quality data on recent household deaths and socio economic characteristics, enabling the analysis of mortality patterns by age, sex, and social group. They compared mortality rates in 2019 and 2020 using data from the same households surveyed in 2021.
More research is needed to understand why females in India experienced higher excess mortality than males, why younger age groups were more affected compared to other countries, and why Muslims saw significant declines in life expectancy compared to other social groups. The researchers suggest these patterns likely result from disparities in healthcare access, underlying health conditions, the differential impact of lockdowns on public health and livelihoods, and increased discrimination against marginalized groups.
