The Covid19 “lockdown” in India has caused unspeakable pain to millions, especially migrant labourers.
Another crisis caused by the lockdown is that of rampant “Unemployment”. People lost their jobs due to the economy shutting down. Big corporations are also using this opportunity to increase profits by downsizing their staff.
Only by uniting and voicing our struggles, we can find a solution.
While the unemployment rate was more than 8% even before the lockdown, it climbed to over 25% at the end of April. More than 12.2 crore people have lost their jobs in April. TN is the worst hit state with unemployment rate rising to 50%.
Majority of the unemployed are youths. 2.7 crore between 20-29 years of age and 3.3 crore between 30-39 years of age lost their jobs. Even in formal sectors, companies are finding it legally feasible to fire employees, as hiring on contractual basis has increased in recent years
Several people are constantly under the threat of losing their jobs. Experts predict up to 1.5lakh job losses in IT Sector in the near future. Most start-ups are shutting down, unable to withstand the competition from big firms. Even if economy recovers, it would be hard to find a job for many. Most corporates will try to minimise new hiring, forcing the existing employees to work harder to sustain profits. The new hires might also be offered very low salaries.
Due to work-from-home orders, most IT firms are exploiting workers without any limits on working hours. Overtime pay is also not provided. In fact, several companies have announced 15%-50% wage-cuts.
Many middle-class workers who lost their jobs are struggling to pay their EMIs for their Education loans, housing loans, medical loans, etc. Graduating youngsters about to look for a job are in deep fear. The dreams of our youth are shattering right in front of us. The worries of millions of families appear to never end.
While majority of the unemployed (9.1 crore) are daily-wage workers, 1.7 crores salaried workers and 1.8 crore small business owners are also out of jobs. IT sector is among the worst hit. “Scroll” magazine has reported about lay-offs, even up to 20%, in multiple firms, including Ola, Uber, Zomato and Swiggy. Apart from these, countless job losses have happened in “Start-Up” sector too. Media is hardly reporting about the job losses in media sector itself. Many media houses, including the huge ones, are executing their long-term plan to downsize staff. This remains unknown to outside world.
Even though the Indian Prime Minister has requested companies to not fire their employees, lay-offs are ongoing extensively.
Many who lost their jobs were forcefully asked to resign.
The situation is worsening every day, but the government doesn’t seem to be listening to our pain.
World dose not seem to know the real size of the ongoing crisis. Media reports do not reflect the real situation.
Tell us about your struggles due to losing the job! Let us make the world hear our story.
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Let's UNITE
Job lost.. At the age of 42, I don’t know how I am going to get another job in this crisis. House rent, monthly expenses and school fees also there. Whole family under stress.. No other words to explain..
சாலையோர தொழில் என்னோடு போகட்டும் என்று படிக்க வைத்த தந்தையின் கனவு பொய்த்தது.
I as a small scale entrepreneur lost the whole business from March obvious tourism hasn’t hv any hope for the next 3 months atleast, as unorganized sector people like us suffered a lot.
Am depending on this work only. Due to lockdown schools are closed there is no job for us. It makes increasing my depression day by day.
So many of us have lost jobs. One of our WhatsApp groups has over 160 employees who lost jobs. My manager called me and gave me two options and both the options were about resigning the job
I am an advocate. My wife works on leaf-streak knitting. Since the income from that is not sufficient, I have returned to my family occupation of weaving baskets
The termination of employee from the job or reduction in wages in this scenario would further deepen the crisis and will weaken the financial condition of the employee and also hamper their morale