New Delhi: The Congress Friday tweeted a photograph of a malnourished child labourer, with a caption that said 7 crore children have been affected in India by the ongoing pandemic and the “BJP crisis”.
“Due to the Corona crisis and the BJP crisis, the economy of the country has started to affect the people. The Corona crisis has affected the poverty of 7 crore children. Modi government should take quick steps to lift the country from the crisis of poverty,” the tweet in Hindi read.
The post came two days after the World Bank released a report saying Covid-related school closures risk pushing 72 million (7.2 crore) primary school children into learning poverty — meaning they are unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10.
कोरोना संकट और बीजेपी संकट के कारण देश की अर्थव्यवस्था से लेकर जनता तक प्रभावित होने लगी है। कोरोना संकट से 7 करोड़ बच्चों पर गरीबी का संकट छा गया है। मोदी सरकार देश को गरीबी के संकट से निकालने के लिये जल्द कदम उठाये। pic.twitter.com/F6AkyGEJeq
— Congress (@INCIndia) December 4, 2020
The Congress tweet had been liked by 757 people and retweeted 234 times till the time of publishing this report. Several other verified handles of the party have also shared the image with the same caption, including its Delhi, Bihar, Haryana, Odisha and Jharkhand units.
Chairman of Congress’ social media department, Rohan Gupta, also retweeted the party’s post.
Fact check
On reverse image searching, it was found that the photograph used in the tweet is from Bangladesh and was shot in 2008. It was clicked by a photojournalist, G.M.B. Akash, and features a brick factory in Bangladesh’s Fatullah.
The Congress’ tweet does not mention the source of the photograph or specify if it is a representational image.
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