Need for India Care Collective

Turning Interest Into Action

Impact on the Informal and Unorganized sector(daily wage worker) due to COVID-19.

According to The International Labour Organization ( ILO ), about 25 million jobs could be lost globally due to coronavirus and the National Labour institute survey stats that casual labor makes up 14.7 percent of all workers when classified by category of employment in urban areas. Self - employed workers make up 38.3 percent while 47 percent are regular wage/salary workers. Most workers who are self-employed are ‘own account’ workers. Such workers along with the casual workers provide service on a daily basis and are likely to hit hard in a scenario where economic activity dips sharply.

Rashid Ali, 49 has been coming to Mayur Vihar labor chowk, looking for work, for over 14 years now. “There is no work. Nobody is coming to hire us these days,” he says. Waiting in a crowd, he is concerned about getting infected by the virus. But his greater worry is how to take care of his family — his wife and their three young children. “I don’t know how I will feed them. I have no money,” he says. 

Fragile MSMEs are already hit rock-solid because of demonetization, GST and NBFC crises, COVID -19 will create a long-lasting economic impact and a majority of workers in this sector have no access to formal finance hampering their day to day basic requirements which are essential in this pandemic situation.