To contain the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), India is under lockdown since March 25, 2020. In a bid to understand the implications of the great lockdown on the labourforce of India one has to peruse the data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017-18 (PLFS) of the government of India.
India had a workforce of about 465 million comprising the self-employed, regular wage/salaried and casual workers.
The self-employed people comprise the highest proportion. They constitute 52.2 per cent of the workforce, majority of which are either petty traders or service providers. In the rural areas and urban areas these workers earn about Rs. 300 and Rs. 500 respectively in a day.
Close to 24.9 percent workforce are in casual employment. Majority of the workers in casual employment in urban areas are migrant workers, including ‘circular migrants’ from the rural areas. Their earning is about Rs. 260 in rural areas and about Rs. 316 in urban areas in a day.
Regular wage/salaried employee constitute the lowest proportion in workforce at about 22.8 per cent. They work in both organised and unorganised sectors.
These workers earn about Rs. 13,200 in the rural regions and about Rs. 17,500 in the urban regions in a month. But, more than 70 per cent of these workers are no better than casually employed. Their monthly earnings are far lower than the permanent workers they also do not get any social security benefits from their employers in case they are retrenched or laid off.
The entire self-employed, casually employed and more than 70 per cent of regular wage/salaried employed comprise workforce in informal employment. In total, close to 93 per cent workforce is in informal employment. It is a foregone conclusion that majority of these workers are without any work and income consequent to the severe disruptions in economic activities after the imposition of lockdown.
As there is no sign of slowdown in the spread of the Covid-19, therefore, it is expected that many parts of the country will remain under full or partial lockdown for at least a couple of months more. It is also feared that their economic conditions are not going to improve immediately after the end of the lockdown. Many studies show that the economy will witness a U-shaped or slow recovery, rather than a V-shaped or quick recovery, after the end of the lockdown.
If recession persists, the magnitude of ‘working poor’ may increase and the incidence of unemployment may also rise. The government should try to accelerate the economic activities by implementing a slew of monetary and fiscal measures. It is also imperative for the government to increase the quantum of financial assistance to the labourforce, because this will help the labourforce to not only cope with the crisis but will also help the economy to come out of the recession rather quickly.
(The writer is Assistant Professor, Xavier Institute of Social Service, Ranchi.)