Rahul Suresh Sapkal

Since the introduction of four labour codes, India’s concerted effort to promote flexible labour markets has been the subject of considerable debate.

A survey on Covid’s impact on informal workers has found that unemployment is still considerably high and that quality jobs in urban areas have disappeared, while there is underemployment in rural India.

Since the announcement of the nationwide lockdown on March 25, 2020, the economy has been reeling under tremendous pressure from severe livelihood losses (78 percent), rising unemployment rate (47 percent), severe decline in consumption and production and an almost 24 percent contraction in GDP.

The outbreak of the pandemic in India and subsequent containment measures such as prolonged lockdowns brought the entire economy to a grinding halt.

The pandemic has exposed...

WITH the outbreak of Covid-19, economic activities abruptly came to a standstill. The magnitude of the impact has had a multiplier effect as it was accompanied by a complete social and economic shutdown.

With India’s entry into the fourth phase of lockdown, the lingering uncertainty of livelihood, income loss and the stranded worker’s desperation to return home have showed up the grave fault lines of our segmented economy