Economy

“The recession and inflation over the last year and more has broken the middle class and crushed low income groups,” says B.D Sharma, a retired director of public relations with the Himachal Pradesh government.  “Whatever I and my wife, who also retired from a government job, had invested in a Fixed Deposited (FD) scheme,” says Sharma. “The regular interest income from this has dropped by 45 to 50% due to cut in interest rates, but our monthly household budget is up by 120%!” Urban families, especially in towns like Shimla, a hill town known even during pre-pandemic times for its…

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Besides health, the socio-economic distress caused by the pandemic is likely to leave a deep impact on the urban milieu. Urban agglomerations are often characterized as organic, dynamic life systems quite capable of being able to adapt, respond to opportunities and absorb adversity. Their vibrancy is argued to be inhibited and even distorted by state interventions. The disparities and inequalities that characterize several Indian cities might lead one to question these beliefs even during regular times. However, the pandemic has thrown up several new questions on the resilience of cities. Whether this be the exodus of migrant workers, loss of…

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In Part I and Part II of our focus on urban jobs and livelihoods, we had examined the need for and feasibility of an Urban Work Guarantee scheme. Citizen Matters also spoke to two eminent economists on the various issues concerning creation of such a scheme. Amit Basole, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Employment at APU (Azim Premji University), has been advocating an urban employment guarantee programme since 2019, and particularly since COVID lockdowns. Dr Jos Chathukulam is lead author of an EPW paper about Kerala’s experiment with its Ayyankali Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme. That such a scheme is…

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As one enters Day 2 Day Medical in Mazgaon, Byculla the huge pharmacy counter right at the back of the large store catches the eye. Three long aisles of all kinds of products -- packaged food, toiletries, cosmetics, and items of daily need -- separate the entrance from the counter, which has a large front that runs up to the ceiling. Upon this front are written the words, “He Cures, We Serve”. Day 2 Day Medical is one of several new format stores that have been proliferating in Mumbai all through the pandemic-induced lockdowns. “We actually have two branches of…

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There does seem to be a broad consensus among economists with whom we spoke, that an urban employment guarantee scheme is necessary to stabilise the economy. Abhijit Mukhopadhyay, a Senior Fellow with the Observer Research Foundation’s Economy and Growth Programme, considers expansion of the employment guarantee programme to urban areas (beyond the MNREGA scheme for villages) as a necessary step in his blueprint for economic revival. He elaborates on this argument in a paper he wrote in January 2021. “Apart from boosting purchasing power and thereby consumption demand, such a scheme has the potential to raise and stabilise urban wages,” writes Mukhopadhyay.…

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Everyday, the advertisement sections of our morning newspapers bear notices of banks auctioning the properties of enterprises that failed to repay loans for more than three months. Everyday, smaller manufacturing companies in Chennai, which had successfully braved the economic distress even during the tsunami and the 2015 floods, are bringing down the shutters for good. And while the COVID-triggered medical crisis and political news routinely eclipse such news, COVID-19 has actually crippled the MSME sector in Chennai (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), leaving many entrepreneurs neck deep in debt. Industrial estates in Chennai that were always abuzz with activity are now…

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Mukesh Kumar, a 34-year-old father of three, was a peon in a school till June 2020 when he was laid off. All his efforts to find a job since have been in vain. “There is no place I have not tried,” said Mukesh, a NOIDA resident. “I don’t have the guts to set up a cart to sell vegetables and deal with the local authorities”. Mukesh emphasises that returning to Kanpur, from where he moved to NOIDA over 15 years ago, was not an option even though he may get a few days of work and wages there under MNREGA.…

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The National Agitation Committee (NAC), a nationwide organization comprising EPS’95  pensioners, went on a  countrywide “One Day Fast” on June 1st to press their demands for the implementation of  a  Supreme Court judgement on Employees' Pension Scheme 1995 (EPS’95) dated October 4th, 2016. The verdict had directed the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to increase the pension amount based on the pensioners’ actual salary. Over 60 lakh members participated all over the country, with five lakh members from Karnataka, including one lakh from Bangalore taking part in the one day fast. The NAC plans to intensify its agitation if the union…

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Geared fully in a PPE suit in the harsh Chennai summer, Dr M Keerthi Varman attends to COVID patients at the Stanley Medical College Hospital. Throughout six continuous hours of his duty, he shuttles between the outpatient ward, where he assesses the condition of COVID patients and the 'zero delay' ward, where immediate care and oxygen support have to be provided to patients with no time lost in the admission process. Work in a COVID ward demands more than the usual share of care and alertness. "A patient once removed his oxygen mask to use the restroom. It could have…

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When the pandemic struck in 2020, it triggered a national lockdown that brought all economic activity across the country to a halt. Radha (name changed), a garment worker in Bengaluru, was at an absolute loss when her factory shut down from March to June. For her, the current lockdown is a chilling reminder of 2020. “Last year, I pledged whatever gold I had, to pay the rent. What will I do this year?” she wonders. Her landlord has not increased the rent, but even the water and electric bills are worrisome. Her husband, also an informal worker, has had no…

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