- The corona impact will badly hurt the poor, daily-wage labour and small businesses. Here’s how the govt can help
- All the decisions have trade offs. At a time when social distancing is the need of the hour, distribution of money could cause further problems. This will need local-level decision
On 21 March, trains leaving Mumbai and heading towards the eastern part of the country were packed. Media reports suggested daily-wage labourers were leaving the city and going back to their native places in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.
With the city being locked down and businesses shutting down, it has become very expensive for daily-wage labourers to continue living in Mumbai. This explains the rush to get out of the city. But with Indian Railways cancelling trains up until 31 March, many daily-wage labourers are now simply stuck without the ability to make a living.
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This is the economic cost of social distancing being practised in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Not just the daily-wage labourers, but small businesses as well as freelancers and those operating in the gig economy are equally feeling the heat. Of course, big business is also bearing the cost of social distancing. But big business has the money and the scale to survive the crisis.
Source: livemint
