THE COVID-19 CONUNDRUM- LIVES VS LIVELIHOODS

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THE CONTEXT: India is the second-most populous country of the world, counted among the most rapidly growing economies of the world. Realizing that a fast spread of COVID19 in India would wipe out a huge part of the world population, the government of India found itself in a dilemma of whether to save lives or livelihoods. Prioritizing lives for livelihood, the state governments are announcing lockdown. This measure is supposed to leave a lasting impact on the economy, especially on the working class and migrant labour. This article suggests measures to the government to balance between saving lives and the livelihood of these vulnerable classes.

BACKGROUND OF THE ISSUE

• The uncertain nature of the pandemic is making it extremely difficult for governments across the world to formulate policies. However, the challenge is bigger for India.
• Given the huge informal economy of the country filled with migrant labour, expectedly the lockdown led to the loss of livelihood for many, as a result of which hundreds and thousands of migrant labourers again started leaving their workplaces to go their respective hometowns, leading to lockdown violations.
• Loss of livelihoods of the migrant labour, however, is not the only problem that the country is staring at. The lockdown could spell havoc for a huge number of small and medium enterprises of the country, leading to further loss of jobs, causing slow demand, a slump in production, and the vicious cycle of economic downturn.
• Besides, with the crop harvesting around the corner, locking the farmers inside their houses may adversely affect the agricultural produce for the season.

WHY LIVES vs LIVELIHOOD HAS BECOME AN ISSUE IN INDIA?

Although, in 2020 and now in 2021 government gives priority to lives against the livelihood and imposed lockdown but this is the issue, why the debate is on high in the case of India? These are four major reasons behind this debate

• India is reporting an exponential increase in the number of cases tested positive for COVID-19. For the last ten years, India recorded more than 3 Lac cases per day.
• India is the second-most populous country in the world.
• India is mainly an agrarian economy with a high proportion of migrant labour.
• Indian economy is in a problem of sorts due to the rising fiscal deficit in the country.

In this situation, the government has very limited options related to both lives and livelihoods and facing a dilemma. During the pandemic in 2021, the government has given priority to lives on livelihood and imposed many lockdown (although, it is not notional-wide). This situation has impacted the poor labour class and migrant workers, especially and started reverse migration like 2020. Now this situation has again raised questions that how government can save both lives and livelihoods.

WHO ARE THE MOST VULNERABLE IN THIS SITUATION?

There is no doubt that poor urban people and their working class with the migrant Labour class is most vulnerable to this situation. Because;

• Job losses: When the government has given priorities to lives (like the present situation), it will affect the production of working units and there will be laid off.
• Lack of sustainable income and savings to ensure food: Most of the working class and urban poor are daily basis workers and their earnings is very low. So that they will face the issue of sustainable income.
• No safety net: Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970 conferred on casual labour a legal status by providing a mechanism for registration of contractors engaging 20 or more workers. Though it was never effective. Although in 2020 the government made some reforms and brought Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 to replace all such Acts, the outcomes of these reforms is yet to come.
• Migrant labours are not the priority of government policy: During the pandemic, the government did not make any significant attempt the safeguard these vulnerable sections of society. Although, the government announced a free ration for 80 crore families under PMGKAY it is not sufficient to make any positive impact.

IMPACT OF THE SITUATION

1. REVERSE MIGRATION: It will start, reverse migration, which was seen in 2020 (in some parts of the country it is already started).
2. ISSUE OF WORKERS FOR URBAN UNITS: After reverse migration of labours, there will be a shortage of workers, which will hit the outcome of pandemic impacted units.
3. UNEMPLOYMENT: As government gives priority to lives, this is impacting small units at a large scale and many of them are suiting down, which will lead the unemployment after the pandemic.
4. POVERTY: As migrant workers and urban poor labours, who are already vulnerable to becoming poor, has no safety net, there is a chance that the present scenario will increase the poverty in India.
5. HEALTH CRISIS: When large-scale population migration occurs as a direct result of a health crisis, the movement mostly tends to be internal, temporary and early on in the health crisis.
6. INCREMENT IN FOOD INSECURITY: Another major challenge raised by the pandemic could be on food security and nutrition. The COVID-19 may bring hunger to millions of people around the world. Available evidence suggests that insecurity is one of the main reasons why people abandon their livelihoods and move to other places. Crisis increases food insecurity and limits the livelihood options of migrant populations.
7. IMPACT ON RURAL ECONOMY: The migrant worker population has led to a growing domestic remittances market, estimated to exceed Rs. 1.5 lakh crores annually. Effectively, this implies that migrants working in urban areas are sending money back to their families in villages worth two-and-half-times the annual NREGA budget.

These money transfers, from migrant labourers to villages, serve 10 per cent of households in rural India and finance over 30 per cent of household consumption in remittance-receiving households, buttressing the importance of urban growth for rural families.

• Of India’s workforce, around 90 per cent is in the informal sector, millions of whom have migrated from their villages in search of a better living. In terms of sheer numbers, these inter-state migrants make up for a colossal magnitude, underlining their importance in India’s economic structure.
• The Census 2011 pegs the total number of internal migrants in the country (accounting for inter-and intra-state movement) at a staggering 139 million.
• Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the biggest source states, followed closely by Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal. The major destination states are Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
• The Economic Survey of 2017 used monthly data on unreserved railway passenger traffic between every pair of stations in India for the years 2011-2016.
• The key idea was to Usenet annual flows of unreserved passenger travel as a proxy for work-related migrant flow. This data shows that such migration within India is between 5 and 9 million annually.

PUSH AND PULL FACTORS OF MIGRATION

Pull Factors:

Economic motives loom large in all human movements but are particularly important with regard to migration.

Pull Factors:

• More jobs
• Better jobs
• Higher wages
• The promise of a “better life”

Push Factors:

Economic push factors tend to be the exact reversal of the pull factors:

Push factors:

• Overpopulation
• Few jobs
• Low wages
• Lockdown
• pandemic

WHY IS THERE A NEED FOR THE SUPPORT AND EMPOWER INDIA’S MIGRANT WORKERS?

• Migrant labourers are the backbone of India’s informal sector and micro, small and medium enterprises.
• Their crisscrossing of states for jobs signifies economic integration, and also inter-regional and rural-urban disparities. While empowering themselves, they also enrich their home and host states.
• The lockdown has threatened to unravel this fabric. Their exodus from host states has created a humanitarian and health security challenge, and a logistical nightmare.

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?

To tackle the challenges posed by the situation, the governments announced should take some important steps.

Direct cash support: The government has to ensure that these people are able to survive themselves during the lockdown period. To make it happen, the government needs to distribute direct cash to such vulnerable populations.

Free food grain: Shortage or non-availability of food grains may cause damage. India has got 60 million tonnes of food grains stored in its warehouses. This is high time that the government distributes these food grains to the vulnerable population free of cost. This measure would complement the direct cash transfer in a big way.

Save SMSEs to save livelihoods: To restrict the loss of livelihoods, it is critical to saving the small and medium enterprises of the country. A package for the small and medium enterprises of the country cannot, therefore, be avoided. Also, on the lines of the innovative measures adopted by the UK and Finland, the government may also bear partial wages of the employees, once the lockdown ends.

Package for the agrarian sector: Given the agrarian nature of the Indian economy coupled with the fact that crop harvesting is around the corner, a harvesting-time relief package for the farming class may help survive the economy in a big way.

Increase social sector budgeting: The pandemic is a wake-up call for the government to increase the spending on improving the health and (medical) education infrastructure in the country.

Financial provisions: The financial system of India has performed overwhelmingly over recent times. To tackle the challenge of the pandemic, the Reserve Bank of India did cut the policy rates. The adoption of similar measures by all the banks in the country would augur well for helping the vulnerable population survive themselves.

• It is important to collect comprehensive migrant worker-related data and statistics that are skill, sector-, and gender-disaggregated, pan-India and state-wise. Its absence has blindsided all on the scale of the migrant labour challenge and frustrated efforts to reach them to help with food, cash health services, shelter or relocation to home/host state.
• The information asymmetry poor migrants faced to access information on relief, benefits and transport need to be addressed. Well-functioning hotlines, outreach systems and providing low-cost smartphones and IT education are crucial.
• Many migrant workers left cities for fear of disease and stigma, job, shelter, income, food insecurity, and to be with families. Others stayed in cities due to pulling factors: Better wages, jobs, economic and social upward mobility prospects.

CONCLUSION: Targeted ecosystem support for migrant workers is a major thrust of the government policies. A veritable Abhiyaan for migrant workers’ welfare and empowerment must be driven by state governments on a war-footing. At this time, migrant workers’ well-being and unleashing their potential is vital to India’s survival and economic revival.