India Lockdown: Economic Inequalities Make The Poor The Hardest Hit!
The
stark economic inequalities in India make the poor the hardest hit—in any
calamity that strikes, the Lockdown in the wake of the spread of Coronavirus
being no exception. As per a study by Oxfam International in 2017 about 1% of
the population held 73% of the national wealth generation while the wealth of
670 million people, the poorest half of Indian population, increased by just
1%. Then, a NSSO (National Sample Survey
Organization) study in 2009-10 reported that the total employment in the
country was 465 million out of which only 28 million worked in the organized
sector and the remaining 437 million in the unorganized sector. Out of the
unorganized sector workforce about 246 million worked in the agricultural
sector, 44 million in construction and the rest in manufacturing and service.
About
93% of the Indian workforce was engaged as self-employed and in the unorganized
sector as per the Economic Survey of 2007-08. With growing urbanization, a
world trend, the scenario changed only a little over the past years and more
than half of the Indian workers still remains a floating population—trying to
earn as agricultural or construction workers in their home terrain or migrating
to the urban areas in search of better livelihoods. Of course, there has been
some impact in rescuing people out of poverty thanks to the pro-poor mass
schemes undertaken by the Government of India in the past decade. As per
another NSSO study around 30 million workers are constantly on the move
migrating to various states. Such seasonal migrants dominate the low-paying,
hazardous and informal market jobs in key sectors in urban destinations like
construction, hotel, textile, manufacturing, transportation, services and
household jobs and so on.
In
2017 the Economic Survey estimated that ‘the magnitude of inter-state migration
in India was close to 9 million annually between 2011 and 2016, while the
Census-2011 pegged the total number of internal migrants in the country
(accounting for inter-state movement) at a staggering 139 million.
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the biggest source states, followed closely by
Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and West
Bengal; the major destination states are Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu,
Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.’
With
no security of employment or guaranteed monthly salaries this huge chunk of the
Indian population became the immediate sufferers the moment Lockdown was
imposed on 25th March, 2020. Next to them were hit the self-employed
chunk that includes small-time traders, poultry farmers, shopkeepers, rickshaw
pullers, auto-rickshaw drivers, cab drivers, delivery boys, vendors, scavengers
and the like. Then, the poorest of the poor—homeless starving people, beggars
on the streets, mostly in the urban areas. These people were rendered jobless,
shelter-less after lockdown as the employers, out of fear and lack of any
employment agreements, threw them out, and they could no longer afford to pay
the rent for the accommodation some of them managed in the cities. And they
desperately wanted to go home—that is the rural areas they migrated from. The
heart-wrenching scenarios that followed are well-known to us thanks to the
media campaigns. Many of them walked or cycled hundreds of miles home in the scorching
heat—very few reaching home, most of them halted and quarantined on the way and
some of them dying on the roads. Even now, some destination-states are mulling
how to transport millions of desperate workers home instead of keeping them in
temporary shelters indefinitely.
However,
problems don’t end in just sending them home. In the first place they were the
surplus population there and migrated to other states for livelihoods. Now,
after reaching home how are they going to fend for themselves and survive? The
existing subsistence population there in terms of agricultural and construction
laborers are also out of job. On a positive note we must mention the great
humanitarian campaigns undertaken by state authorities, the police, the
religious organizations and the NGOs to give them free rations, direct fund
transfers in a very limited way still and to feed the hungry.
The
Indian economy has been on the downswing in the preceding years with
unemployment rate reaching unprecedented highs. The COVID-19 lockdown is bound
to make it worse and the most challenging task ahead as in many developed
countries too.
A
persistent worry in India has been the lack of an adequate financial package
from the Government of India. Experts all around the globe have emphasized on
making funds available to the poor as well as the industries/trades. Apart from
the mere 500 bucks each transferred to the mass bank accounts which had
witnessed piteously serpentine queues in
front the banks and some money to the farmers’ accounts precious little has
been done. With COVID-19 cases rising steadily and the authorities facing a
dilemma in lifting or extending lockdowns the uncertainty looms perniciously
for the deprived millions of India.
Stark
realities involving the super-rich and the destitute in India are very 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 never-before focus
is now on the poor of the country. The below-poverty-line citizens, the poor,
the lower income group people in India never had a lobby or an influence to
work for them except for false election promises. Now, at least, the government
can no longer ignore them.
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