State of Working India 2021: One year of Covid-19

During the nation-wide lockdown during April-May 2020, about 100 million workers lost their jobs. About 15 million workers continued to be out of work even by the end of 2020, this report states. Published in April 2021, the report analyses the impact of Covid-19 on jobs and income in India.  The report has been published by the Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University, Karnataka. It evaluates data between March and December 2020. The primary data sources are the Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (CPHS) from the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) (which has been defined as “a continuous survey to measure household well-being in India”); COVID-19 Livelihood Phone Survey (CLIPS) and the India Working Survey (IWS), both conducted by Azim Premji University. The report also examines the effectiveness of policy measures to offer relief and support during Covid-19 and suggests revisions to short- and medium-term social protection schemes.  This 240-page report is divided into eight chapters: Introduction (Chapter 1); The Indian economy prior to the pandemic (Chapter 2); Employment loss and recovery (Chapter 3); Informalisation and earnings losses (Chapter 4); Falling incomes, rising hunger and indebtedness (Chapter 5); India’s social protection architecture (Chapter 6); Effectiveness of the Covid-19 policy response (Chapter 7); Policy recommendations for the short and medium term (Chapter 8).