Study: 2-year drop in life expectancy due to virus

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 23

Life expectancy in India has dropped by two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a newly published research by demographers from the Mumbai-based International Institute of Population Studies.

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The study shows India has been pushed back to early 2010 when it comes to gains made on the front of life expectancy. Researchers concluded that the pandemic had negative effect on both the life expectancy (e0) at birth and inequality in age at death (G0). They said the men had been more vulnerable.

“Covid-19 has demonstrated its potential to cancel the gains of six to eight years in life expectancy at birth and has slowed the mortality transition in India. We report that life expectancy at birth for men and women has declined from 69.5 and 72 years in 2019 to 67.5 and 69.8 years, respectively, in 2020. The life expectancy shows a drop of approximately two years in 2020 when compared to 2019,” said Suryakant Yadav, the lead author of the study.

“The trends in e0 and G0 value reveal that its value in 2020 is comparable to that in the early 2010s,” said Yadav, adding that the drop in life expectancy was primarily fuelled by excess Covid deaths among 35 to 79-year-olds.