ILO: Indians can slip deeper into poverty due to Covid-19
Relevance: Sociology: Challenges of Social Transformation:(a) Crisis of development: displacement, environmental problems and sustainability. (b) Poverty, deprivation and inequalities. & G.S paper I: Society and social issues; & G.S paper III: Indian Economy
CONTEXT
Around 400 million Indians are at a risk of slipping into poverty due to a “stringent” nationwide lockdown implemented to control coronavirus, International Labour Organisation (ILO) said in a recently released report.
ILO in its report on ‘COVID-19 and the world of work In India, Nigeria and Brazil, stated that, the number of workers in the informal economy affected by the lockdown and other containment measures is substantial. In India, with a share of almost 90 per cent of people working in the informal economy, about 400 million workers are at risk of falling deeper into poverty during the crisis.
It noted that India’s current lockdown measures were at the high end of an index produced by the University of Oxford, known as COVID-10 Government Response Stringency Index, which has impacted informal sector workers “significantly, forcing many of them to return to rural areas.”
In fact, using the University of Oxford’s index, the ILO plotted a chart to show how India has put more informal workers under lockdown than its neighbour Pakistan and other countries such as Brazil and China.
ILO noted that lockdowns and related business disruptions have had sudden and drastic impacts on workers and enterprises.
ILO estimates show that workplace closures have increased so rapidly in recent weeks that 81 per cent of the global workforce lives in countries with mandatory or recommended closures.
The ILO estimates that the pandemic is expected to take away 195 million full-time jobs across the world. It said the employment losses are rising rapidly across the globe and described it as “the most severe crisis since the Second World War.”
The sectors considered at high risk of disruption, according to the ILO, are accommodation and food service activities; manufacturing; real estate, business and administrative activities; and wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles.
For more such notes, Articles, News & Views Join our Telegram Channel.
Click the link below to see the details about the UPSC –Civils courses offered by Triumph IAS. https://triumphias.com/pages-all-courses.php