Urban employment guarantee and increased cash transfers to poor: Remedy for emergencies
By Dr Soumyadip Chattopadhyay, Dr Arjun Kumar, Sunidhi Agarwal, Nikhil Jacob The exodus of migrant workers to their home states due to loss of livelihood in the wake of the Covid-19 induced lockdown was unprecedented. It brought unimaginable hardship to these city makers who thrived on the low paid and unstable jobs provided by their foster cities. The pandemic exposed the ill-preparedness of the urban spaces in handling such a crisis. This is corroborated by data which shows that the urban areas were much more affected during the lockdown and had a poor recovery rate post lockdown, in compar...