A spell of Economic and Social Devastation
The spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) was a disaster at an
unprecedented scale for the world. COVID-19 caught the
world unprepared to face a pandemic of such magnitude.
The pandemic confined people to their homes and robbed
professionals of their jobs. Mass unemployment rose worldwide
from the period from December 2019 to September 2020.
The effects of the pandemic that started in 2019 are impacting
the Indian employability landscape gravely. According to the
Economic Survey from 2018, 93% of India’s workforce operates
in the informal sector of the economy. The uncertainty of
income for a vast majority of the population resulted in
economic conditions that rewired the social and political
landscape. Given the inadequacy of job security in the informal
economy, many people do not have buffer resources to tackle
a pandemic of such magnitude. It is unlikely that the individuals
who lost their jobs are well-equipped to face the unforeseen
employability shifts due to COVID-19
The gruesome fate of the working population
Daily wage workers, contractual labor and self-employed
workers were hit the hardest. They had to face uncertain
conditions to sustain in a competitive economy. The lack of
food and shelter continued through the initial months of 2020,
resulting in a mass migration from cities to rural areas. The
organized private sector also witnessed massive layoffs. The
limited resources available in stringent economic conditions
led to unstable job conditions for the private sector workforce.
The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) reported
that India’s unemployment rate might have spiked up to 23.4%
during the week that ended on 5th April 2020. Until March, the
unemployment rate was officially reported to increase from
7.8% to 8.7% all throughout February 2020. The result was
an increase in death rates due to insufficient supplies during
the spread of COVID-19 in a large, vulnerable population. The
the virus did not discriminate between the poor and the well-off,
spreading throughout the country despite the nationwide
lockdown measures.
