Economy

healing the workers

Rakesh Kumar Rakesh Kumar @Aryasblog Apr 12, 2020, 15:33 IST

It should never be wished away that lives are not important and hence livelihood is only important. The corona outbreak has swept across the globe and it has not been sparing rich or poor, weak or strong. Everyone is evading from the virus because it is too deadly. But in the entire spell though efforts are made to save the people it is certain the people living lower in the income pyramid are likely to be hit worst. There are reasons for it. One that lock down almost of 36 days has disrupted whole range of economic activities. The cash flow has been severely affected. The cash income of almost 90% of the workers is not accruable if they have not reported to work. But since the workers are tied to some establishment and the firm itself is going dry to earn the cash, some means are being worked out to how to stand them out. How far banks would be in a position to accommodate each of these firms by providing them the cash credit shall decide their production and since both the sides i.e proprietors and workers are equally in bind further operations is possible with workers alone. Therefore out of their previous balances the workers are expected to be paid off. India has roughly 10 crores workers which are on contractual basis or daily wage earners. Since the work is lying closed they cannot claim from any owner. However, the government and some NGOs are contributing towards the relief measures and hence their daily minimum needs are adequately met. Since the number of confirmed corona virus cases are still significant each day and whether after lock down the full normalcy would be achieved is again questionable. In these circumstances unemployment souring high cannot be ruled out. The straight away closure for many days would affect the tax liability severely and the tax collection bound to fall down significantly for the full year presuming that economy will be limping throughout the year. As the revenue fall in correspondence to the fall in GDP and unemployment would also be in proportion to fall in GDP and keeping in view in the past trend in the unemployment which was increasing, it is important that employment generation should be the priority going forward. Though the government was endeavoring best to formalize the economy but given the fact that workers who come at the bottom of the skill acquisition and in terms of demand the supply is much higher, these workers are forced to take up the work in the unorganized sector to make their livelihood. Most of the countries have suffered severe downturn in the economic growth and the unemployment in these countries shall also be significant. The domestic demand and global demand is going to have adverse effect on the earning of the corporate. NO doubt companies would not like to hire more employees for some time more. Government of India has the special opportunity to give relief to the unemployed workers. The units which have become insolvent of closed down these can be revived by providing them loans from the banks so that absorption could be fast. The demand and supply side both would be strong in these circumstances. Similarly there is need to reduce the stamp duty to ease the purchase in the real estate and fast completion of earlier projects. Real estate and construction provide employment to more than 10% workers. The scale of Micro Finance needs to be enhanced.

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