Economic Hardship, Coronavirus Push Thailand’s Single Mothers to Make Tough Choices | Voice of America

With a pandemic gutting the economy and a family to feed,  Pah – a single mother – works odd jobs by day and sells drinks in Bangkok’s entertainment industry at night, one of an untold number of women at the sharpest end of Thailand’s unprecedented economic crisis. 

Southeast Asia’s second biggest economy has, so far, avoided the worst of the public health crisis caused by the virus. 

Instead, it has been battered by the economic costs of a collapse of tourism and diminishing global demand for its exports. 

On Monday the Office of National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) announced a 6.1% contraction in gross domestic product over 2020, the worst in two decades.   

This year has started badly, with renewed partial lockdowns after a resurgence of the coronavirus and the continued absence of foreign visitors. The NESDC warned tourists are…