With second COVID wave pushing millions more into penury, govt must widen food support programme

The second wave of COVID-19 has been pushing millions more in India into destitution and extreme poverty. Many families are losing their earning members to the pandemic, many have survived alone and have nothing left with them even to feed themselves, and many lost their jobs. We, therefore, immediately need to at least widen our food support programmes.

Though Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna (PMGKY) has been extended a fortnight ago for two months i.e. for May and June 2021, it would cover only about 80 crore poor people. The programme was launched last year after the nationwide lockdown to cover the same number of people.

In the last one year, millions of workers have lost their jobs and are yet to be reemployed. The second wave has worsened the situation since February 2021 with additional job losses in millions. Therefore, there is an urgent need to reassess the number of people who have transitioned into destitution and extreme poverty in real time so that all of them could at least be provided with food.

It may be mentioned here that the pre-pandemic data of extreme poverty in India showed 27 crore people in extreme poverty, which increased to about 80 crore just after the lockdown. That is why PMGKY was launched for that many number of people.

One wonders why this programme was extended this year for the same number of people amidst much more devastation caused by the second wave, both in terms of loss of lives and livelihoods.

With containment measures and lockdown imposed by several states in the last three months, millions of jobs have been lost. According to the latest CMIE data, India's unemployment rate rose to a four-month high of nearly 8 per cent in April, and the outlook remains bleak in the near future with state administrations being forced to extend lockdowns to curb a record surge in COVID cases.

Unemployment increased to 7.97 per cent in April from 6.5 per cent in March. More than seven million jobs were lost last month. The situation in May and June, for which the PMGKY has been extended, is most likely to worsen, because the second wave may be at peak in the third week of May and may not be mitigated in June. Therefore, there may be more job losses.

A separate survey by IHS Markit showed that the manufacturing sector was still losing jobs in April, though the rate of contraction was the weakest in the current 13-month sequence of job shedding.

The CMIE data shows joblessness is more acute in urban areas as labourers return to their villages. Therefore, we need to secure food for both urban and rural areas for poor, new and old. We will need new data for those who have just become poor or destitute.

The labour-force participation rate, which includes the number of people with jobs and those seeking work, declined to just below 40 per cent in April. It was a sharper loss compared to February and March which erased at least 7.35 million.

CMIE data showed that the number of employees, both salaried and non-salaried, fell from 398.14 million in March to 390.79 million in April, in the third straight month of falling jobs. In January, the number of people employed in India was 400.7 million.

April also saw a sharp increase in the number of people who are unemployed, yet not actively looking for employment due to fear of infection from the pandemic and mishandling of medical facilities or lack of it.

According to CMIE, the employment rate fell from 37.56 per cent in March to 36.79 per cent in April, hitting a four-month low. The monthly data also showed that the number of people who were unemployed yet not actively looking for jobs has increased from 15.99 million in March to 19.43 million in April.

(IPA Service)

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