The COVID – 19 crises as a career shock

The world is facing hard times, it’s not that the hardships occur in the world for the first
time, even in many past years a lot of crisis occurs at different intervals of time at different
places in the world. But this is for the first time the whole world has stopped since
civilization has taken place. The limelight is on the issue that whole world together is deeply
affected by this uncertain enemy called COVID - 19. The outbreak of the corona virus that
has begun in December 2019 drastically affected the whole world and continues to
adversely impact lives, livelihoods and the economy. The impact of pandemic COVID - 19 is
observed in every sector around the world such as the economy, retail sector, tourism
industry, education etc. The sudden spread of pandemic has directly and indirectly
disrupted every aspect of our lives. Even before the onset of crisis, the social and economic
integration of young people was an outgoing challenge.
Undoubtedly the COVID- 19 pandemic in India has very severely impacted, rather negatively
the employment figures of India since 2020. The government took many steps to stop the
spread of corona, to enforce social distancing business where people gather have been
forced to close and major companies in India temporarily suspended or significantly reduced
operations. The entertainment industry consisting of movies, theaters, sports center,
concerts etc. are declining under these constraints. Even the tourism places, bars, hostels,
transportation and industries were totally shut down as per the lockdown policy because of
which government has been suffering a huge economic loss. Many people come under
poverty line due to the global crises. The rate of unemployment increases rapidly due to
deadly virus. As millions of people lose their jobs and forced thousands more out of work
temporarily with no idea if their jobs will still be there when the lockdown end. The daily
wage earners who have lost their jobs and not having savings to pay the rent and feed their
families is very stressful.
As many as 1.5 lakh people working in the IT firms have lost their jobs. Before lockdown our
unemployment rate is 6.7% i.e., 34 million people are unemployed. Within few months our
unemployment rate is 27% i.e., 12,15,00,000 people lost their jobs in a month. So more than
150 million people are unemployed in our country and according to experts the
unemployment rate can go as high as 35% in coming months. These unemployment crises
hit both the middle-income group and lower income group quite hard as the daily wage
earners have been the worst hit as 9 crore daily wage earners lost their jobs and 3 crore
people who are entrepreneurs’ or professionals also face the hard times. The
unemployment rate hit a four-month high in December 2021 at 7.9%. It is highest since
August 8.3%. As we all know that the unemployment has been on the rise since the start of
the pandemic, it was at record high in May 2021 at 11.84% during the second wave.
Employment rate among individuals over the age of 18 was about 10% in the first three
months of 2021. Even female employment rose to 11.8% in the period from 10.6% A year
ago. So, if the daily wage earners are the sweat and blood of Indian economy the salaried or
self-employed middle class keeps the giant machinery of the economy running. Both are
equally important to run the country.
As, 271 million people lifted out of poverty since 2006. But this unemployment crises might
just undo all our efforts in this regard. As the jobs losses in US and Europe 6 crore are half of
the job losses in India 12.15 crore. The countries around the world are dealing with the
unemployment crises by introducing number of schemes for their country men’s or the daily
wage earners so that it can give a kick start to their lives and encourage them to earn their
livelihood once again. Various countries like The United States come up with a Paycheck
Protection Program, it is a type of loan designed to provide incentive to small businesses to
keep their workers on payroll during Covid -19 crises. As the government will forgive the
loans of small business if all employees are kept on payroll for eight weeks and the money
which they get from the government is used in paying salaries. Yes, we understand that
India is a developing country and that we cannot afford to forgive loans but still we can
tailor it to the Indian context. Even in our budget there is no direct unemployment scheme
was announced. The government is providing benefits by transferring Rs. 500 each to
woman in Jan Dhan Account and Rs. 1000 for poor, widows, senior citizens and disabled.
The government has also increased the payment for MENREGA and front-loaded PM-KISAN
payments. But they have not been able to provide relief to companies who are not able to
pay their employees their salaries apart from the TDS reduction. Its not like that the relief
measures announced by Indian government are in any way mild, there are a lot of indirect
benefits as well as like collateral free loans for SMEs and MSMEs and mega funds for
providing liquidity.
But what I mean to say is that we need something more tangible for the people who are
affected during the pandemic. Something on the lines of what the other countries are doing
by providing direct cash transfers to the worst affected people because this unemployment
crises are not going to be solved any time soon. Still the efforts and recovery plans of the
government are highly appreciable, the government is doing its best with utmost efforts to
reduce the impact of corona virus. The people as well as the various socio- political
organization of the country should provide full support to combat this pandemic because
this is a humanitarian crisis and not a political one.

-By Gunakshi