Here in India, a lot of poor people receive similar handouts, both from the central government and from the state government. And in 90% of the cases, they spend this amount in alcohol and gambling.
I'm skeptical. You got a source to back that up?
The majority used the money for daily expenses like food and bills, and after that, housing and paying off debts. Unsurprisingly:
Stimulus payments aren't intended to impact long term welfare, aside from the broad goal of preventing a prolonged recession or depression. And remember, any stimulus money that is spent at businesses is effectively a subsidy to those businesses. That's the entire point: to get income to businesses.
I can't speak to what India did specifically, but in the US anyone making less than $100K got a stimulus payment. So not only did the middle class receive a handout as well, but business owners doubly benefited when consumers went to spend the money.