THE DAY AFTER COVID-19

India is hit hard due to the spread of this pandemic situation which has called for a sudden and extended nationwide lockdown and has put every lives of India into a standstill.

- Dhirendra Newar

Be it business, economy, communication, commerce, industrial production, including e-businesses and e-commerce, all are pushed behind a dark cloud. There are several news and information coming into the feed that several companies and business giants like OYO, airlines establishments, etc. are calling for a pay cut of its employees. All these might lend the whole world, including India, in an unprecedented situation that has never been seen or dealt with before.

With the International Labour Organisation predicting that there would be around 2.5 crore job losses globally for economic slowdown due to this pandemic, the employment scenario here is one of the worst affected. Even before the pandemic outbreak, India's unemployment rate was one among the highest in last several decades. Due to corona outbreak, millions had to leave their jobs and others were forced out of their employment. Several experts believe that overall about 136 million non-agricultural jobs are at immediate risk, the estimate of which is based on National Sample Survey (NSS) and Periodic Labour Force Surveys (PLFS) data. Also, these are people without a written contract and include casual labourers, those who work in non-registered nano businesses, registered or unregistered small companies, and even the self employed. Most of them have suffered immensely, which can be estimated from the fact that the nationwide lockdown has impacted nearly 40 million internal migrants, as estimated by the World Bank. This has impacted the livelihood of a large number of population. How they cope up with the situation and the government response in this regard will be a matter of wait and watch. But whatever be the scenario, the employment impact will be a long-affected one.