With businesses not opening soon, laborers’ wages to get lighter

<p style="font-weight: 400;">The going will not be easy for businesses, particularly the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), even as India begins exiting the nationwide lockdown. Challenges are aplenty: huge shortage of labor as about 50 per cent have returned to their native places, stringent guidelines by the Ministry of Home Affairs, lacklustre demand within and outside the country, lack of transport facilities, and unprecedented paranoia are some of the problems that businesses will have to deal with.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">The loss in labor income, especially for the self-employed in the unorganized sector, could be anywhere between Rs 1.5 lakh crore to Rs 2 lakh crore, depending on the lockdown. Several MSMEs are in danger of shutting down.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Business activities in the red zone—the areas with large number of Covid-19 cases—are yet to recommence. While the MHA guidelines have allowed business activities to restart in the orange and green zones, most businesses remain shut due to difficulty in adhering to the strict norms set by the MHA.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Construction work and factories have been allowed to resume, but promoters have been encouraged to make arrangements for their workers to stay at the site.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“Migration of labor from urban areas will be a big problem. This will lead to shortage of skilled workers. It is also not feasible for factories and other construction projects to make arrangements for their workers to stay back. This is the space constraint. Also, with no public transport at this point, especially in the big cities, workers are unable to commute,” Federation of Indian Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises (Fisme) secretary general Anil Bhardwaj said.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Typically, a skilled mason in Delhi would earn between Rs 700 and Rs 1,000 per day. However, many of them have returned to their villages. Those who are there are struggling to get work, and are even willing to get a much less amount. Rural India, on the contrary, will have an over-supply of labor force, with the return of many. “The situation is yet not clear but it could be that the wages in the rural areas get impacted due to the oversupply of laborers,” Bhardwaj added.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Private offices have also been allowed to operate but again with up to 33 per cent strength and have been mandated to regularly sanitize the premises. There is also lack of co-ordination between the central and local authorities.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">The fear psychosis—of getting infected—has also played its part. Many are scared to return to work. The laborers who have returned to the villages may not come back to resume work due to the unprecedented fear for a long time.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) released last month, about 40 crore workers in the Indian’s informal sector could be pushed into poverty due to the corona-driven crisis and the subsequent lockdown.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Tough future for the most vulnerable.</p>.