80% of India's informal workers lost jobs during COVID lockdown, 63% survived on two meals a day, shows data
4 years, 1 month ago

80% of India's informal workers lost jobs during COVID lockdown, 63% survived on two meals a day, shows data

Firstpost  

Government needs to take action regarding job security, social security benefits, food security, health benefits, and safety in the informal sector in such a way that it not only manages the current crisis, but also immunises the sector from future shocks The nationwide lockdown announced on 24 March, 2020, mandated the suspension of all services and establishments with relaxations to only essential service providers. Table 1: The status of employment of informal workers across sectors before and after lockdown Sectors Pre-lockdown Post lockdown Unemployed Seeking work Working Agriculture 6.14 10.75 Construction 4.55 7.69 Manufacturing 2.22 5.12 Services 2.72 7.42 Source: ActionAid India 2020 The loss of income due to sudden unemployment might have been bearable if informal workers had been earning enough before the pandemic kicked in. 2020 Estimates show that in low-income countries like India, depleted labour incomes caused by the lockdown could translate into more than 56 percent of informal workers and their families living in relative poverty. A survey conducted by Action Aid Association of India on informal workers found that 58 percent of the respondents had to borrow money to meet their expenses during the lockdown.

Food India Services Labour Workers Sector Mgnrega Enterprises Informal Economy Lockdown Informal Workers Informal Work Cash Assistance Informal Enterprises  lost  enterprises  meals  day  indias  labour  informal  economy  food  lockdown  workers  sector  survived  india  services  jobs  shows

History of this topic

Delhi Paradox: Low Unemployment Rate But No Jobs for Women, Informal Workers?
2 months, 1 week ago

Delhi Paradox: Low Unemployment Rate But No Jobs for Women, Informal Workers?

The Quint  

“We don’t want any freebies. Instead, give us decent-paying jobs with social security,” said Arvind Kumar, who works as a civil contractor in Delhi’s Burari. Although Delhi boasts of one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in the country— 4.6 percent as compared to India’s average of 10.2 percent in the June 2023 to July 2024 period — the situation …

India’s cities, expanding hubs of precarious employment
4 months, 3 weeks ago

India’s cities, expanding hubs of precarious employment

The Hindu  

Abhishek is just 25 years old. Precarious nature of work in urban India In recent decades, there have been fundamental shifts in India’s urban workforce and city development. Moreover, 92% of the 61 million jobs created after the economic liberalisation of 1991 were informal, indicating the precarious state of employment in India’s labour market. Structural imbalances favour organisations that control …

Revive India’s unorganized sector to raise incomes and tackle unemployment
8 months, 2 weeks ago

Revive India’s unorganized sector to raise incomes and tackle unemployment

Live Mint  

The release of the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises by the National Statistical Office fills an important data gap in our understanding of what is happening in the unorganized sector. The net impact of this is that the total number of workers in the unorganized sector has fallen from 111.3 million in 2015-16 to 110 million in 2022-23. While …

Economic Survey 2024: 7.85 million non-farm jobs needed annually till 2030; over 7% fall in unemployment rate
8 months, 3 weeks ago

Economic Survey 2024: 7.85 million non-farm jobs needed annually till 2030; over 7% fall in unemployment rate

Hindustan Times  

The Indian economy needs to generate an average of nearly 78.5 lakh jobs annually until 2030 in the non-farm sector to cater to the rising workforce, according to the Economic Survey for 2023-24. The rising employment of flexi workers through staffing companies can be a channel for ensuring social security for informal workers, it stated. "Consequently, the Indian economy needs …

Terms of Trade | India needs to move beyond the formalisation and welfare narratives
8 months, 3 weeks ago

Terms of Trade | India needs to move beyond the formalisation and welfare narratives

Hindustan Times  

Since demonetisation in November 2016, the current government has been consciously following a policy of pushing formalisation in the Indian economy. In terms of share in overall GVA excluding agriculture and construction, the share of informal sector enterprises has gone down from 12% to 8.2% between 2015-16 and 2022-23. While there are no clear-cut estimates for the sector-wise break-up of …

India’s over 400 million informal labour market requires a structural shift: ISF
10 months ago

India’s over 400 million informal labour market requires a structural shift: ISF

The Hindu  

India with almost 85% informal labour, generating more than half of the country’s GDP, requires a structural shift towards structured and formal employment, said The Indian Staffing Federation, the apex body representing the country’s contract staffing industry, Suchita Dutta, Executive Director, Indian Staffing Federation observed, ‘‘The plight of lower-income and semi-skilled workers underscores the pressing need for concerted action. In …

Why has official Indian data on informal enterprises been kept under wraps?
10 months, 2 weeks ago

Why has official Indian data on informal enterprises been kept under wraps?

Live Mint  

Barely a week goes by these days without an economist or policy wonk debating India’s growth numbers. Speaking to The Economist recently, India’s former chief statistician Pronab Sen argued that the old GDP series may have captured real growth rates more accurately. In an earlier interview to The Wire, Sen had argued that India’s recent growth numbers were likely to …

Lifting the burden keeping Indian women from work
10 months, 4 weeks ago

Lifting the burden keeping Indian women from work

New Indian Express  

Women’s work participation across the world has been low and its recovery from the post-pandemic period has been slow. The International Labour Organization’s World Employment and Social Outlook Report for 2023 reflects on this persistent gender gap and pegs women’s participation in the labour market at 47.4 percent, as compared to men’s at 72.3 percent. Apart from the ILO's highlight …

How to create more jobs for India’s educated youth | In Focus podcast
11 months, 3 weeks ago

How to create more jobs for India’s educated youth | In Focus podcast

The Hindu  

The India Employment Report 2024, released recently by the International Labour Organisation, paints a grim picture. The news is particularly bad on two critical counts: joblessness is particularly high among the youth, and its worse for the educated youth. According to the report, India’s youth account for 83% of the unemployed workforce, with the share of the educated youth among …

Can India Ensure Living Wages at a Time When Workers Struggle for Minimum Wage?
1 year ago

Can India Ensure Living Wages at a Time When Workers Struggle for Minimum Wage?

The Quint  

Recruitment happened through middlemen, the pay was based on piecework, and most workers preferred daily wages to avoid deductions for benefits from their already meagre income of Rs 300. Even though company hostels provided them with shelter, migrant workers were still classified as daily wage earners, receiving no benefits. Although these workers perform industrial work, qualifying them as organised sector …

Employment scenario in India grim, says ILO report
1 year ago

Employment scenario in India grim, says ILO report

The Hindu  

India’s youth account for almost 83% of the unemployed workforce and the share of youngsters with secondary or higher education in the total unemployed youth has almost doubled from 35.2% in 2000 to 65.7% in 2022, as per the India Employment Report 2024 released by the International Labour Organisation and the Institute of Human Development here on Tuesday. Paradoxical improvements …

Beyond Silkyara smiles, gloomy state of workers
1 year, 3 months ago

Beyond Silkyara smiles, gloomy state of workers

Hindustan Times  

The successful rescue of 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel for over 17 days is both thrilling and sobering. Every day millions of India’s workers suffer the worst forms of indignities as they struggle to make a livelihood with little policy protection and on the margins of national consciousness. Data from the government’s Periodic Labour Force Survey shows that …

India’s war on informal labour is turning out bad for workers
1 year, 5 months ago

India’s war on informal labour is turning out bad for workers

Live Mint  

India’s mission to bring its vast workforce into formal jobs is faltering, leaving a majority of non-farm labour in unincorporated businesses. But social-security benefits that are crucial to make labour economically secure remain available to only 54% of a narrow group of people who’re lucky to work for a salary. If it doesn’t, it would become a drag on the …

What forced PM Modi's jobs push now
2 years, 9 months ago

What forced PM Modi's jobs push now

India Today  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reviewed the status of human resources in all central government ministries and departments and ordered the recruitment of 10 lakh people in a mission mode in the next 18 months,” the PM's Office said in a tweet on Tuesday. — PMO India June 14, 2022 Tuesday’s tweet from the PMO follows protests by frustrated job …

Long after COVID lockdowns, India’s youth struggle to find work
3 years, 1 month ago

Long after COVID lockdowns, India’s youth struggle to find work

Al Jazeera  

Nearly 36 million Indians aged 18-29 were unemployed in 2021, while many others have settled for less well-paying jobs. The pandemic just exacerbated the job losses.” India is currently grappling with a third wave of infections fuelled by the highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant, with nearly 1.75 million active cases as of February 2. “India cannot afford total lockdown or …

India’s economy and the challenge of informality
3 years, 2 months ago

India’s economy and the challenge of informality

The Hindu  

Since 2016, the Government has made several efforts to formalise the economy. Currency demonetisation, introduction of the Goods and Services Tax, digitalisation of financial transactions and enrolment of informal sector workers on numerous government Internet portals are all meant to encourage the formalisation of the economy. Transformation in Asia The defining characteristic of economic development is a movement of low-productivity …

Has India’s Informal Economy Really Shrunk? The Actual Story Is Different
3 years, 4 months ago

Has India’s Informal Economy Really Shrunk? The Actual Story Is Different

The Quint  

A recent edition of “Ecowrap”, a publication of the research team of the State Bank of India, has claimed that India’s informal economy has sharply declined from 52.4 per cent in 2017-18 to between 15 and 20 per cent in 2020-21 in the three years since 2017-18. In the former, the share of the informal economy declined from nearly 75 …

Indians prefer job guarantee over everything else. This is the top reason
3 years, 8 months ago

Indians prefer job guarantee over everything else. This is the top reason

Live Mint  

A majority of urban Indians left unemployed by the coronavirus pandemic want the government to guarantee them jobs like it does for people in rural areas, says a study by the London School of Economics. An overwhelming 82% of respondents surveyed for the report ‘City of dreams no more, a year on: worklessness and active labour market policies in urban …

Re-employment still a challenge for those who lost jobs in COVID-19 first wave
3 years, 8 months ago

Re-employment still a challenge for those who lost jobs in COVID-19 first wave

The Hindu  

As many as 40% of people who had lost their jobs over April or May 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic hit India, had been unable to find a paying job even ten months after the national lockdown began, with the problem most acute for younger workers in urban India, as per a new survey-based report. On an average, people who …

Migrant workers vulnerable again, say activists
3 years, 11 months ago

Migrant workers vulnerable again, say activists

The Hindu  

With State governments announcing lockdowns and curfews in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases, migrant workers could once again be staring at loss of wages and lack of social protections, labour union leaders and activists said on Thursday. After the lockdown last year, many of these workers could not get back their jobs as the contractors who hired them did …

India’s migrants flee to their villages as covid-19 prompts new lockdown
3 years, 11 months ago

India’s migrants flee to their villages as covid-19 prompts new lockdown

Live Mint  

As Covid-19 roars back in India, migrant workers who had just started to resettle in the cities they left during last year’s outbreak are packing up to return to their villages again. “People are trying to get out because they’re worried the government will stop the trains again.” Lalit Singh, who works in a factory cutting tiles, got stuck in …

Covid-19 has all but killed a lifeline in poor economies, hustling for work
3 years, 11 months ago

Covid-19 has all but killed a lifeline in poor economies, hustling for work

Live Mint  

When times get tough in the developing world, many workers eke out a living by doing odd jobs, driving taxis or selling snacks on the street. “Always in a crisis, I have seen that informal work and the informal economy becomes a sort of buffer for many workers" who are laid off, Ms. Sinha said. Reduced opportunities for informal workers …

Bitter home truths for migrant workers
4 years, 1 month ago

Bitter home truths for migrant workers

Live Mint  

ARARIA/NEW DELHI : Bergachi Chowk is a busy intersection, a short ride away from Araria town in northern Bihar, an impoverished hub of distress migration. Impact of slowdown View Full Image After completing his graduation in Delhi, Naser Siddiqui returned home to start a garment store instead of scouting for a job Imran’s predicament is shared by several others around …

1.7 lakh people lost jobs every hour last April: Report
4 years, 1 month ago

1.7 lakh people lost jobs every hour last April: Report

India TV News  

1.7 lakh people lost jobs every hour last April: Report While the wealth of nations top 100 billionaires increased by Rs 12.97 lakh crore since March 2020, about 1.7 lakh people lost their jobs every hour in April 2020 alone. While the wealth of nations top 100 billionaires increased by Rs 12.97 lakh crore since March 2020, about 1.7 lakh …

Out of work in COVID-19 lockdown, Delhi citizens try self-employment in hopes of rebuilding livelihoods
4 years, 6 months ago

Out of work in COVID-19 lockdown, Delhi citizens try self-employment in hopes of rebuilding livelihoods

Firstpost  

With millions out of work and many being forced to explore new avenues, it remains to be seen how much success these ventures have. “They made it all sound easy and very lucrative, but it isn’t.” Well-meaning friends advised him to start selling insurance, reasoning that if he could sell car loans, then he could sell insurance. “I felt even …

Unemployment Rate in India Rose to 8.4% in August 2020: CMIE
4 years, 6 months ago

Unemployment Rate in India Rose to 8.4% in August 2020: CMIE

The Quint  

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in the country and the nationwide lockdown implemented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, millions of lives and livelihoods have come under threat. The informal labour force has been effectively rendered jobless and for many, their survival is based on the government's flagship jobs scheme, MGNREGA, under which every household is entitled to at …

India’s Gen Z risks getting left out of formal jobs: London School of Economics study
4 years, 6 months ago

India’s Gen Z risks getting left out of formal jobs: London School of Economics study

Live Mint  

India has been struggling with an unemployment problem and the coronavirus pandemic is making it even more difficult for its youngest workers to earn a decent living, shows an analysis by the London School of Economics. Workers in cities in the age group of 18 to 25 years were already much less likely to be in formal jobs and more …

“COVID 19 lockdown increased our hardships” - Voices from the women-led households of Mumbai
4 years, 7 months ago

“COVID 19 lockdown increased our hardships” - Voices from the women-led households of Mumbai

Firstpost  

Women informal workers, who are the only earning members of the family, are demanding immediate attention to their issues of unemployment and financial instability. Mumbai: Saroj Sindala, a 40-year-old single mother from Shastri Nagar in Santacruz area, who works as a cleaner in a private company and as a house agent, is debt-ridden since the lockdown and is trying hard …

Opinion | Demonetization déjà vu in today’s coronavirus times
4 years, 8 months ago

Opinion | Demonetization déjà vu in today’s coronavirus times

Live Mint  

While both demonetization and covid-19 had a large economic impact, by no means are they of the same magnitude. About 90% of India’s labour force is employed in the informal sector, which depends largely on cash and does not have enough buffers to withstand large economic shocks. When the government first estimates gross domestic product growth, it assumes the informal …

In post-COVID world, rethinking livelihoods and laws necessary to help informal sector cope with new norm
4 years, 8 months ago

In post-COVID world, rethinking livelihoods and laws necessary to help informal sector cope with new norm

Firstpost  

With limited laws and policies governing them, informal workers are often left at the mercy of their employers. That was the focus of my research with women beneficiaries of Self Employed Women Association Bharat — a federation of women-led institutions providing economic and social support to women in the informal sector — across three lines of work: home-based workers, domestic …

Lockdown: 22% workers lost jobs in 4 states
4 years, 9 months ago

Lockdown: 22% workers lost jobs in 4 states

Live Mint  

Researchers have found that 22 per cent workers lost their jobs and 31 per cent faced partial unemployment amid the lockdown in three north Indian states. They depicted that due to lockdown, 22 per cent workers lost their jobs and 31 per cent have had to face partial unemployment, which means they have either had to leave other side businesses …

Migrant workers: The emergence of invisible India
4 years, 9 months ago

Migrant workers: The emergence of invisible India

Hindustan Times  

We are living in challenging times brought on by the coronavirus diseases. A country of over 1.3 billion people was locked down, at four hours’ notice, ignoring the needs of the poorest and migrant workers. Workers with an identity document from another state should be allowed to access all government schemes and facilities of the central government or of the …

Hunger, poverty and jobs: India's poor pay heavy price in fight against coronavirus
4 years, 10 months ago

Hunger, poverty and jobs: India's poor pay heavy price in fight against coronavirus

India Today  

More than two months have passed since the nationwide lockdown was put in place to fight the novel coronavirus. The sudden economic disruption triggered by the lockdown left almost 12 crore people in India — daily wager labourers, small shop owners, migrants — jobless in April, according to Centre For Monitoring Indian Economy. India’s poor need cash Public interest technologist …

Covid-19 pandemic: Over 80% of Indian homes lost income in lockdown
4 years, 10 months ago

Covid-19 pandemic: Over 80% of Indian homes lost income in lockdown

Hindustan Times  

About 84% of Indian households saw their incomes fall last month under the world’s strictest shelter-at-home rules, and many won’t survive much longer without assistance, a study shows. Kolkata: A woman with her child arrives at Howrah station via special train from New Delhi following the resumption of passenger train services by Indian Railways, during the ongoing COVID-19 nationwide lockdown, …

Average income of Delhi's non-migrant workers saw 57% decline during lockdown: Study
4 years, 10 months ago

Average income of Delhi's non-migrant workers saw 57% decline during lockdown: Study

India Today  

The national capital's low-income non-migrant communities are now poorer, with an average 57 per cent decline in their earnings during the nationwide lockdown, a study by a group of researchers from the universities of Chicago and British Columbia has found. The mean weekly income for this group during the first phase of the lockdown fell by 38.9 per cent, the …

COVID-19 impact: Informal economy workers excluded from most govt measures, be it cash transfers or tax benefits
4 years, 10 months ago

COVID-19 impact: Informal economy workers excluded from most govt measures, be it cash transfers or tax benefits

Firstpost  

COVID-19 is far more than a health crisis. Almost 90 percent of workers in India work in the informal economy–that part of the economy which thrives on daily work, and daily cash, with little provisions of employment protection. Pronab Sen, the former chief statistician of India was reported as saying that around 50 million workers might have lost their jobs …

The indispensability of labour in reviving India’s economic engine | Opinion
4 years, 10 months ago

The indispensability of labour in reviving India’s economic engine | Opinion

Hindustan Times  

Migrant workers are like nowhere people. It is a silent army of migrant workers, working day and night with no job security, no social safety net, and poor living conditions — yet, theirs are not the names we see on the billboards or the foundation stones of these shining symbols of India’s economic progress. This will increase, for villagers can …

Our GDP Woes: Demo Vs Lockdown Compared
4 years, 10 months ago

Our GDP Woes: Demo Vs Lockdown Compared

ABP News  

However, we do not even know what the size of the informal economy is. The second issue is that some of this informal economy also operates on the formal side. The informal sector means that economic activity which is not taxed directly, and which may not even be registered. Almost all businesses that use only family labour, paanwalas, sabziwallahs, many …

Return of the migrant: Even as UP govt appeals for calm, ramps up quarantine centres, delayed action turns a public health crisis into a humanitarian one
4 years, 11 months ago

Return of the migrant: Even as UP govt appeals for calm, ramps up quarantine centres, delayed action turns a public health crisis into a humanitarian one

Firstpost  

Delayed action turned a public health crisis into a larger humanitarian one, as evinced by the testimonies of migrant labourers stranded near Kamasin. They are just the “lucky” few of India’s 120 million migrant workers who survived the journey home on foot, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the nationwide lockdown to combat the spread of the coronavirus on 23 …

Opinion | Unlocking the economy: policy roadmap for India after 14 April
4 years, 11 months ago

Opinion | Unlocking the economy: policy roadmap for India after 14 April

Live Mint  

Long before the coronavirus surfaced as a pandemic, the Indian economy was in the midst of a serious downturn. The following sectors, taken together, account for more than two-fifths of India’s gross domestic product : manufacturing, mining, construction, trade, hotels & restaurants, and transport. The same sectors, taken together, also account for more than two-fifths of total employment: manufacturing, mining, …

Lockdown | More needs to be done for informal sector workers, says NITI VC
4 years, 11 months ago

Lockdown | More needs to be done for informal sector workers, says NITI VC

The Hindu  

NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar on Thursday said India’s informal sector is too large and more needs to be done for workers employed in the segment, including giving them social security cover. Citing the recent example of thousands of migrant workers trying to rush back home after the imposition of the coronavirus lockdown, Mr.Kumar said, “Otherwise, we won’t be …

India COVID-19 lockdown means no food or work for rural poor
4 years, 11 months ago

India COVID-19 lockdown means no food or work for rural poor

Al Jazeera  

Millions in underdeveloped regions face penury and deprivation as economic activity grinds to a halt due to lockdown. Mumbai, India – For farm worker Manisha Uke, being able to survive is contingent on two factors – one, getting a daily wage of 100 Indian rupees a day and two, receiving a widow’s monthly pension of 1,000 rupees from the government. …

Data | Who are the most vulnerable to the lockdown among urban dwellers
5 years ago

Data | Who are the most vulnerable to the lockdown among urban dwellers

The Hindu  

The COVID-19-related lockdown may have an immediate impact on close to 2.5 crore people in vulnerable jobs across India, an estimate from the latest Period Labour Force Survey suggests. Workers without any benefits image/svg+xml Workers % share Total workers Not eligible for paid leave 52.8 94,25,207 With no security benefit* 47.7 85,14,817 With no written contract 72.4 1,29,23,958 *PF/ pension, …

India under lockdown: The great migrant story
5 years ago

India under lockdown: The great migrant story

India Today  

As India grinds to a halt with a three-week nationwide lockdown in place to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus, the unorganised working force on the margins of society might be the worst hit with no savings and therefore completely dependent on what they earn each day. Sahu, 30, and his wife Kunti used to earn Rs 8,00-1,000 a …

India’s economy slows, stalling once thriving manufacturing
5 years, 6 months ago

India’s economy slows, stalling once thriving manufacturing

Associated Press  

NEW DELHI — Anuj Kapoor took over his father’s booming auto parts business in 2012, hoping to elevate the company from selling to suppliers to selling directly to carmakers. “How do we file tax returns when sellers don’t give us any bills?” The sudden demonetization was the “biggest policy mistake of independent India,” says Jayati Ghosh, an economist at Jawaharlal …

50 lakh people lost jobs since demonetisation in 2016, reveals latest report on job crisis; unemployment rate rose to over 6% in 2018
5 years, 11 months ago

50 lakh people lost jobs since demonetisation in 2016, reveals latest report on job crisis; unemployment rate rose to over 6% in 2018

Firstpost  

The CSE survey said lakh men lost their jobs between 2016 and 2018 and the beginning of the decline of jobs coinciding with demonetisation in November 2016. Months after a leaked report on unemployment by the National Sample Survey Office created furore, with the Opposition calling it a “ national disaster ” and the Centre taking recuse by dubbing it …

India lacks good economic, jobs data due to informal economy: Bibek Debroy
6 years, 1 month ago

India lacks good economic, jobs data due to informal economy: Bibek Debroy

Live Mint  

India lacks good data on economy and jobs as it is majoraly an informal economy, Bibek Debroy, the head of Prime Minister's economic advisory panel, said Monday, while a report claimed big buoyancy in employment numbers under Narendra Modi-led government. A detailed analysis and field research on MUDRA loan scheme, SHGs and infrastructure developments, especially rural roads and National Highways …

CMIE data shows 11 mn jobs lost in 2018: Labour reforms need of the hour, but no political party is serious about it
6 years, 2 months ago

CMIE data shows 11 mn jobs lost in 2018: Labour reforms need of the hour, but no political party is serious about it

Firstpost  

According to a report by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, job losses, and the number of unemployed people in the country have been steadily rising Almost 11 million people lost their jobs in the country in 2018. According to a report by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, job losses, and the number of unemployed people in the country …

The enormity of job challenge that India faces
6 years, 5 months ago

The enormity of job challenge that India faces

Live Mint  

While there is no clarity on the extent of jobs created in the economy since 2011-12, there is no disagreement that the economy has failed to create enough jobs. The unrest among farmers driven by declining incomes is also a manifestation of the problem of employment in a country with almost half of the total workforce working in agriculture. The …

Discover Related