New data has shown how unequal the impact of the Covid pandemic has been on different communities in India. While average life expectancy at birth is estimated to have fallen by 2.6 years between 2019 and 2020, this decline is estimated to have been even more extreme among marginalized social groups, further exacerbating pre-existing inequalities, according to a study published in Science Advances of 765,180 people representing a quarter of India’s population.

As the graph below shows, the life expectancy of Muslim Indians is estimated to have declined by 5.4 years between 2019 and 2020, by far the largest decline of the groups studied. While the average life expectancy was 68.8 years in 2019, it fell to 63.4 years in 2020. In contrast, upper caste Hindus experienced the smallest decline at -1.3 years, i.e. their life expectancy fell from 71 years to 69.7 years.

The decline in life expectancy was also greater among Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes than among more privileged social groups: 4.1 and 2.7 years, respectively. According to the report, “these declines among marginalized groups are similar or larger in absolute magnitude than the declines experienced by Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans in the United States during the pandemic.”

Gender also had an impact. Contrary to larger global trends, women in India experienced a greater decline in life expectancy than men, with the decline being one year higher than their male counterparts. According to the report, this may reflect gender inequality in India, with Indian households spending less on women’s healthcare compared to men, “a pattern that has likely worsened during the pandemic.”