Today’s An English News paper carries a report on the front page with the caption “”Jobless Grads,PGs,now after MGNREGS works. I feel very bad ,because it’s heart wrenching.The Graduates and Post Graduates rendered jobless due to Covid19 crisis now have no hangups about taking up unskilled and labour intensive jobs under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural employment Guarantee Scheme .They are in sizeable Numbers among ,atleast 35,Lakhs people across the country who have applied for this Scheme MGNREGA since April 1st -the highest in the decade .
India lost more jobs since announcement of lockdown in a shoddy manner.As per the latest report one in every four Indians is unemployed now..The Corona virus-induced lockdown for the longest period in the world has triggered job losses that are unprecedented in the Indian history.Over 122 million people lost their jobs in April, last, according to Centre For Monitoring Indian Economy.What is more worrisome is that India had entered the lockdown with already high unemployment level.Report also says India lost more jobs since imposition of nation wide lockdown in March than the US did during Great Depression.At 27% the country’s unemployment rate is now four times that of US.
The disturbing scenes of desperate migrant workers fleeing cities on foot to return to their villages dominated TV screens and News paper columns,all these days .If you see the reports many large scale companies across sectors including retail ,automobiles, hospitality ,aviation etc have announced massive layoffs,while many small and medium businesses are likely to shut shops altogether.The job loss and salary cuts will slowdown further ,the recovery , even after pandemic..The much touted “Atmanirbhar Bharath Abhiyan””package contains long term measures,to ease credit and liquidity concerns but will have no bearing on immediate task of providing succour to the people impacted by pandemic.Since vulnerable sections need cash in their hands to feed their families,Centre should have ensured direct cash transfer to the poor ,but since it was suggested by the rival group’s leader ,it’s not acceptable,irrespective of the fact that the suggestion is good.
