Impact of COVID-19 on employment in urban areas

  COVID-19 has decimated livelihoods in urban India and created a new underclass of workers who are being pushed into poverty. Developing economies across the world have large informal sectors, where workers lack even basic social protections like sick pay. India is no exception. Regular wage/salaried employees make up less than half of the urban workforce, and the rest are in a hinterland of casual work, temporary contracts and self-employment. Even among regular employees, only 27 percent have a written employment contract while a little over half have access to some benefits (provident funds, sick pay, health insurance) through the government or their employer. The latter make up the flagship schemes for COVID-19 relief to workers in urban areas which, at the outset, provides limited reach due to large proportions of uncovered workers. Many workers are expected to be covered by these schemes. Yet old and new forms of informality persist, leaving many without basic social pro...