Sudhir Paswan, 29, is back to square one in his village in Bihar s Muzaffarpur district, counting his losses. It has been more than a week since he returned, after failing to secure a job in Delhi. A labourer who loaded and unloaded goods in Delhi s Okhla Industrial Area, he would earn between Rs 200 and Rs 700 a day. Since the lockdown, there was no work and access to food and essentials became difficult. I had to leave the city, he said. Over 800,000 migrants left India s capital, for instance, for their hometowns in 2021. Paswan is just one of them. Jobs have been hit harder since the lockdowns of 2021, put in place to control the second wave of Covid-19. May has shown double-digit unemployment figures, said Mahesh Vyas, chief executive officer of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a think-tank. More than 97% of India s population became poorer compared to where they were in terms of income, he said. Its effect on the informal sector, which had barely recovered fr
Falling between the cracks
Workers stitching PPE suits at a workshop in Dharavi, Mumbai - PTI×
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Invisible in the pandemic fires, a slow burn of hunger and distress across India
Invisible in the pandemic fires, a slow burn of hunger and distress across India
As lockdowns get extended in cities, the working-class is back to cutting down on food. This time, there are no community kitchens to fall back on. 6 hours ago A non-profit organisation distributing free food to needy people outside a railway station in Mumbai on May 16, 2021. | Indranil Mukherjee / AFP
Sanju Devi stood wearily, clutching a cloth bag outside a ration shop. It had been a month since Delhi had gone under lockdown to contain a deadly surge of coronavirus cases and over three weeks since the prime minister had announced extra foodgrains for two months for 800 million people enrolled under the National Food Security Act.