The poorest have been worst hit by pandemic

The first part of this series presented a macro picture of India’s labour market situation until December 2020 to argue that even though a recovery is underway, significant challenges remain – one reason there needs to be a larger fiscal support in the forthcoming budget. While doing this, it is important that the condition of the poorest sections of the population, who live on the margins even in normal times, is given special attention. For this, nationally representative surveys such as the Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (CPHS) by CMIE can be usefully supplemented by targeted surveys of poor and vulnerable households.

With this in mind, Azim Premji University carried out a lockdown survey in April and May of 4,942 workers.

Six months later (September-november), we revisited the same workers and managed to interview 2,778 of them. Telephone interviews were conducted across 12 states with the help of six partner civil society organisations.

Our sample is very different in composition from that of CPHS, with a greater representation of informal workers, lower caste workers, women workers, and low-income households (see table). Even though findings from this survey cannot be generalised to the entire population, they present a snapshot of Covid-19’s impact on those at the margins.