Job losses mounting

The lockdown has predictably taken a heavy toll on the Indian job market. Migrant workers, including daily wagers, are bearing the brunt of the suspension of economic activity amid the pandemic outbreak. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a Mumbai-based think tank, the country’s unemployment rate shot up to 27.11 per cent for the week ended May 3; it was under 7 per cent level in mid-March, 10 days before the lockdown was imposed. The urban areas have been hit harder than the rural ones. As per the CMIE’s data, the monthly unemployment rate in April was 23.52 per cent — which indicates that one out of every four employed Indians was rendered jobless.

These alarming figures belie the Central government’s commitment to protect lives as well as livelihoods. Jaan bhi, jahaan bhi seems easier said than done. Doles — in cash or kind — are only a quick fix. The resumption of economic activity, albeit in fits and starts, should go hand in hand with flattening the retrenchment curve. It is heartening that Punjab and Himachal Pradesh have managed to keep April’s unemployment rate as low as 2-3 per cent, even as Haryana is among the worst performers (43.2 per cent).

Joblessness has been a sore point with the powers that be in recent years, coupled with a worrying tendency to undermine the sanctity of official statistics. In January 2019, months before the General Election, a leaked report on the periodic labour force survey had worked out the unemployment rate in 2017-18 at 6.1 per cent — a 45-year high. The damning findings had forced the government to issue one clarification after another. Soon after the poll results were out, the Labour Ministry had corroborated the data, but desisted from making comparisons with surveys conducted in earlier years. The Covid crisis makes it imperative to confront the problem head-on. Even as the migrants are being ferried back to their native places, the authorities can’t abdicate their long-term responsibility of keeping these people employed and employable. Now is the time to devise a post-lockdown action plan catering to all workers, formal or informal.