The stark economic inequalities in India mean that the poor bear the brunt of whatever calamity strikes, and the lockdown in the wake of the spread of the coronavirus is no exception. According to a study by Oxfam International in 2017, approximately 1% of the population owned 73% of the national wealth generation, while the wealth of 670 million people, the poorest half of the Indian population, increased by only 1 %. Then, a study by the NSSO (National Sample Survey Organisation) in 2009-10 reported that the total employment in the country was 465 million, of which only 28 million worked in the organized sector and the remaining 437 million in the non-organized sector. organized. Of the unorganized sector workforce, some 246 million worked in the agricultural sector, 44 million in construction, and the rest in manufacturing and services.
Around 93% of the Indian labor force were self-employed and in the unorganized sector according to the 2007-08 Economic Survey. With increasing urbanization, a global trend, the scenario has changed only a little in recent years and more than half of Indian workers remain a floating population, trying to make a living as agricultural or construction workers on their home turf. origin or migrating to urban areas. in search of better livelihoods. Of course, there has been some impact in lifting people out of poverty thanks to the massive pro-poor schemes launched by the Government of India in the last decade. According to another NSSO study, about 30 million workers are constantly on the move, migrating to various states. These seasonal migrants dominate low-paid, dangerous, and informal market jobs in key sectors in urban destinations such as construction, hospitality, textiles, manufacturing, transportation, services, and domestic work, etc.
In 2017, the Economic Survey estimated that “the magnitude of interstate migration in India was close to 9 million annually between 2011 and 2016, while the 2011 Census pegged the total number of internal migrants in the country (taking into account interstate movement) at a staggering 139 million. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the largest origin states, closely followed by Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, and West Bengal; the main destination states are Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala’.
With no job security or guaranteed monthly wages, this large section of the Indian population became the immediate victims the moment the lockdown was imposed on March 25, 2020. Along with them, the share of workers was affected by own account that includes small traders, poultry farmers. , shopkeepers, rickshaw pullers, auto rickshaw drivers, taxi drivers, delivery men, vendors, garbage collectors and the like. Then the poorest of the poor, the homeless, the hungry, the beggars on the streets, especially in urban areas. These people were left without work, homeless after the confinement since the employers, out of fear and lack of labor agreements, kicked them out and could no longer pay the rent for the accommodation that some of them managed in the cities. And they desperately wanted to return home, that is, to the rural areas from which they emigrated. The harrowing scenarios that followed are well known to us thanks to media campaigns. Many of them walked or biked hundreds of miles home in the scorching heat, very few made it home, most of them stopped and quarantined along the way, and some of them died on the roads. Even now, some destination states are considering how to transport millions of desperate workers home instead of keeping them in temporary shelters indefinitely.
However, the problems do not end simply in sending them home. First of all, they were the surplus population there and migrated to other states to make a living. Now, after they get home, how are they going to fend for themselves and survive? The existing subsistence population there in terms of agricultural and construction workers is also out of work. On a positive note, we must mention the great humanitarian campaigns undertaken by state authorities, the police, religious organizations and NGOs to give them free rations, direct transfers of funds in a still very limited way and to feed the hungry.
The Indian economy has been in recession for the past few years with the unemployment rate reaching unprecedented levels. The COVID-19 lockdown is sure to make it worse and the most challenging task ahead in many developed countries as well.
A persistent concern in India has been the lack of an adequate financial package from the Government of India. Experts from around the world have emphasized making the funds available to the poor as well as industries/businesses. Aside from the mother, $500 each transferred to the massive bank accounts that had witnessed pitifully snaking queues in front of the banks and some money to the farmers’ accounts, very little has been done. With COVID-19 cases rising steadily and authorities facing a dilemma on whether to lift or extend lockdowns, uncertainty looms perniciously for India’s underprivileged millions.
The stark realities involving the super-rich and the destitute in India have been all too common to us for decades; but the Coronavirus crisis has exposed these realities to an unbearable extent. In a way, this is fortunate, because the focus that has never been placed before is now on the country’s poor. The citizens below the poverty line, the poor, the low income group of people in India never had a lobby or influence to work for them, except for false electoral promises. Now, at least, the government can no longer ignore them.
