Crippling job losses

THE tourism sector has borne the brunt of Covid-19 over the past two years. The Centre told the Lok Sabha on Monday that about 2.15 crore people in this industry lost jobs due to the three waves of the pandemic, including 1.45 crore during the first wave that witnessed a nationwide lockdown. Considering an average household size of five members, these job losses have adversely impacted over 10 crore people. The situation is no less dismal in the manufacturing sector. According to a study last year by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, the number of employees in this sector dropped from 5.1 crore in 2016-17 to 2.73 crore in 2020-21 — a 46 per cent fall in just half a decade, mostly the pre-pandemic years.

Now, with the third wave having subsided and the Covid vaccination programme achieving extensive coverage, the government is hopeful of a turnaround on the tourism front. An interest-free loan of Rs 10 lakh is being given to travel and tourism stakeholders and up to Rs 1 lakh to tourist guides to help them tide over the crisis. But is that enough to recoup the losses and revive jobs? Making matters worse is the ‘substantial under-utilisation of budgeted funds’ by the Ministry of Tourism, as pointed out by a Parliamentary Standing Committee in a new report. The panel, while asking the ministry to ‘exercise greater fiscal prudence’, has suggested several steps to boost tourism, including development of last-mile connectivity, regularising the adventure tour markets and the introduction of a tourism ranking system among cities.

With the services sector on the whole contributing over 50 per cent to India’s GDP, it is vital to bring domestic and international tourism back on track with the generation of adequate employment opportunities. It also needs to be assessed why the ambitious Make in India initiative has largely failed to prop up the manufacturing sector and what should be done to ensure that the bulk of the labour force is gainfully employed. India’s post-Covid economic recovery will remain sluggish unless sustained efforts are made to rev up the tourism and manufacturing sectors.

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