Potential of engaging migrants: Not a burden but an opportunity to revive rural economy

Potential-of-engaging-migrants-Not-a-burden

The global crisis due to COVID-19 has affected India little later in March 2020, while WHO announced it as world emergency on last phase of January 2020. A complete lockdown after China war has been faced by 135 Crore Indians, from 24th March 2020 and within a span of 4 hours’ time everything came to a standstill. It was imposed for one day was a real ‘mock drill’ as it checked the readiness of people to follow it in the coming days. Till now to contain the spread of coronavirus and to minimize the losses, lockdown has been imposed in four phases with various degrees of restrictions and allowances. This was unavoidable as the virus was spreading very fast and the risks were high. The complete closure of urban and semi urban based industry, manufacturing and construction units and agricultural works in rural areas affected country’s economy in many unprecedented ways.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has said the country’s GDP could even shrink to 0.9 per cent in case the outbreak extends and spreads further, leading to prolonged restrictions in existing hotspots and identification of new hotspots”. This has created unavoidable impacts on production, consumption capacity and employment aspects of large number of workers specially engaged in unorganized sector. A recent submission made by the Union Government to the Supreme Court of India reveals that there are about 41.40 million migrant workers in the country during the lockdown and more than 2.5 million are living in relief camps and shelters and 9.93 million are being provided with food. In terms of sheer number, the size of the migrant workers is equivalent of the total population of Spain, one of the worst affected countries under Covid-19.

Source: Counter View