1154 LIVELIHOOD AT STAKE: The pandemic has struck a severe blow to the economy, with savings getting depleted and unemployment increasing. Tribune photo Devinder Sharma Food & Agriculture Specialist AN additional 230 million people have quietly slid below the poverty line during the first year of the pandemic, reports the Centre for Sustainable Employment at the Azim Premji University (APU). In another study, the Pew Research Centre had computed the middle class to have shrunk by an estimated 32 million. This estimate is again for the first year of the pandemic. However, both studies are a grim reminder of the severe blow dealt by the pandemic to the middle class and the poor.