The second wave of COVID is not only a health crisis butalso an economic one.
The first wave of the pandemic last year pushed so manyindividuals and families down the social hierarchy and the same is beingrepeated this year in the second wave.
Mind you, learning from the pandemic of 1918, the SpanishFlu, the pandemic may last for four years in India and attack in multiplewaves.
This despondency is confirmed by 73.5 lakh Indians losingjobs in the month of April alone.
Further, the unemployment rate increased by 22% to 7.97% inApril from 6.5% in March.
These data are released by Centre for Monitoring IndianEconomy (CMIE), a private research company.
CMIE’s MD and CEO, Mahesh Vyas claimsthe lockdown-created halt in the economy has destroyed small businesses inrural areas of India.
He continues that recovery from the first wave was still ininfancy when the second wave came and dashed all hopes at least in the nearfuture for salaried people.
To mitigate and solve the situation, Vyas offers suggestionsthat the government must step in to resolve the problem of unemployment and thesame must be done after understanding the reasons for the loss of jobs.
It is relevant to note that State of Working India reportconfirms what we all have been fearing – COVID has kicked 23 crore Indians downthe socioeconomic ladder.