MEASURES TO STRENGTHEN UNORGANIZED SECTOR IN ECONOMICS

ECLIPSED BY GLOBAL PANDEMIC: A CRITIQUE

The lockdown in India will have both advantages and downsides. On the one hand, the health
system will be better prepared, but on the other, there will be many jobless and destitute. Urban
informal sector workers, largely consisting of male migrants, are the most vulnerable and the
most difficult to reach through social security programmes. Social distancing has Necessitated
Dramatic changes in the world of work-a shift of workplaces into virtual mode.
As the Indian economy reels under the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown the most to suffer if
they are unorganized sector smaller businesses. Majority of India’s working force around 90%
works in the informal sector. A workforce that largely relies on daily wages they are the ones
that are going to be hit the most space the Prime Minister did mention that the government is
ensuring that the poor do not face any difficulties but no specific measure was announced.
Probably this is going to be worse than even the demonetization which we had in November
2016 because they the cubs were on currency but there the cubs are in movement you can’t move
you cannot earn doing nothing. By far the most vulnerable section of the workplace during the
lockdown are those in the informal sector who are mostly unskilled, low paid with no or at fuzzy
employment contracts, employed in the precarious work environments, and lacking any form of
Social security or welfare safety. They are spread across sectors like construction, manufacturing
(in factories, workshops and even homes) domestic work, Street vending, waste pickers and
recycling, sanitation, restaurants, food delivery and allied services and all form of transport.
They are usually paid by the day with daily rates ranging from rupees400 to rupees1000. This
does not offer much scope of saving; in fact many informal employees do not even have proper
bank account in which they can store their savings. COVID-19 has resulted in a combination of
demand destruction, supply disruption and a pandemic shock that has resulted in a countrywide
lockdown situation. The informal workers were already facing problems with low wages and
income in the pre-period Because of economic slowdown. Daily wage labourers and informal
labourers are the worst hit during the lockdown and will continue to be adversely affected even
after the lock down is relaxed. The survival of the informal sector will become questionable with
every passing day. A subset of this informal sector is the interstate migrant labourers, who have
been badly bruised by the lockdown.
90% of the jobs are in the informal sector and they would be hurt the most and the worst part is
that we will not know how much worst would they be because we do not typically map them so
well formal sectors are mapped better than the informal sector so that is the lot of people who
will face the most hardship be it in terms of losing jobs having their salaries court or in terms of
being pushed down the poverty line so those are the kind of challenges that will be facing now.
Workers in the unorganized sector are facing problems for the past few days due to the lockdown
is already in place in several states and districts.
Most of them, who are employed as workers in building roads, factory production and in the
services sector are now out of work as the businesses and establishments have been shut down.
In the absence of money, jobs and any savings or shelter in large city‘s they are desperate to go
back to the villages to be with their families. But this is not happening because many of the
borders have been sealed. . Thousands of migrant workers scrambled to return from city’s today
homes in states like Jharkhand Bihar Kerala and West Bengal many were stuck in the process
due to the unprecedented shut down of rail and interstate bus services. The closure of workplaces
and avenues of employment, the lack of clear and positive assurances from the political
leadership only exacerbated these workers’ anxieties, and compelled them to make the long walk
home, from the cities to the hinterland.

It ensured that the workers with their belongings and family members had to traverse long
journeys by foot without food or proper drinking water. There is an urgent need to address their
problems and their need for food, shelter, and security-related issues need to be taken care of.
One of the best ways to take care of the worst-hit migrant workers is to use the network
of  panchayat bhavans, government colleges and schools, railway stations, bus stations,
community halls, etc to set up feeding centers to arrange free cooked food, medical care and
sanitation. The first priority is to ensure that people don't starve or are deprived of basic
necessities for survival due to job losses and a complete lockdown in economic activities. After
the lockdown, an orderly return of migrant workers to their respective workplaces must be
arranged. India’s challenges owing to its large informal sector are daunting. The sheer number of
people whose livelihoods are suddenly snatched away from them is huge. Economists have
suggested that this is the time to use the JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) trinity and make
immediate transfers to people who live hand-to-mouth. Direct transfers have already been
announced by state governments such as UP, Punjab and Kerala. The decision by the central
government to give wheat and rice at subsidized prices is another step. All governments need to
act immediately so that the pain faced by daily wage workers, particularly in urban areas where
they are most hit, is minimized. Since they are the ones who will be hurt immediately by the
lockdown, they have to be supported first.

This is an ideal opportunity for the Indian state to raise its capacities to provide goods and
services for the citizens who need them most. Rather than continue to ignore the problem of
informal labour or simply pretend it does not exist, the time has clearly now come for the state to
don the role of a provider rather than just act as an enforcer.