Events of IGC
The ongoing COVID-19 health crisis has affected lives across the world and caused a massive economic shock. The situation in India is particularly dire, with a deadly second wave of infections sweeping across the country. Last year, India imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in the world to limit virus transmission, which led to severe economic losses and hardships for millions. The government will have to now draw on evidence from the first lockdown, and introduce new policies that carefully balance the saving of lives with the need to protect livelihoods. To help policy stakeholders understand the severity of the crisis, IGC India is gathering new evidence around the socio-economic impact of COVID-19. These studies focus primarily on three themes: labour markets, households, and health and wellbeing.
The International Growth Centre (IGC) and Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), in collaboration with CORENET, are organising an online conference to present new research and lessons for policy around these key thematic areas across three days from 5 – 7 May 2021 at 16:00 – 17:35 IST or 11:30 – 13:05 BST.
You can register for the online conference here.
The impact of COVID-19 on labour markets – 5 May 2021
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns are disrupting the lives of millions of workers through layoffs and reduction in working hours and wages. At the same time, India has witnessed one of the largest exoduses of labour migrants, a large population usually employed in informal, low-paid jobs and with no or limited access to social protection measures and job security. Additionally, COVID-19 has increased the vulnerability of women’s employment. This webinar discusses evidence on the short- and long-term impacts of the lockdown on labour migrants, policy responses to mitigate labour market risk from the crisis, and coping mechanisms adopted by vulnerable groups.
Panellists: Clement Imbert (Warwick), Dipak Kumar Singh (Government of Bihar), Farzana Afridi (ISI Delhi), Swati Dhingra (LSE), Senior Bureaucrat (Government of Bihar) and Ashmita Gupta (ADRI). Robin Burgess (LSE) will deliver the Welcome Remarks.
The economic impact of COVID-19 on households – 6 May 2021
Nearly 84% of Indian households have witnessed a decrease in income since the national lockdown began. While the well-off can manage, there are grave concerns about how the poor can cope and survive the lockdown period and beyond. This webinar explores how households are coping with the economic effects of the lockdown, and whether existing and new welfare schemes are effective enough to support households that have lost their livelihoods, especially in rural areas.
Panellists: Ashwini Deshpande (Ashoka University), Gaurav Dutt (Monash University), Harjot Kaur Bamhrah (Government of Bihar), Sanjay Kumar (Government of Bihar) and Pronab Sen (IGC India).
The impact of COVID-19 on health and wellbeing – 7 May 2021
The nationwide lockdown in India has disrupted food supply chains, and access to food is a growing concern. India has some of the world’s largest food security schemes to address malnutrition and hunger. While the initiatives seem promising, the COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges in the effective delivery of midday meals and public distribution systems (PDS), especially for migrant families. This webinar reflects on the impact of COVID-19 on household food consumption and food security, dietary practices of women and children in rural Bihar, the financial status of households, and access to government schemes.
Panellists: Harlan Down-Tepper (Duke), Mousumi Dutta (Presidency University), Sunil Kumar Mishra (Institute of Human Development), Senior Bureaucrat (Government of Bihar) and Shahid Vaziralli (IGC).
Patna, May 7. The International Growth Centre (IGC) and Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), in collaboration with CORENET, organised a three day conference titled “The impact of COVID-19 in India and pathways to recovery”. The ongoing COVID-19 health crisis has affected lives across the world and caused a massive economic shock. The situation in India is particularly dire, with a deadly second wave of infections sweeping across the country. To help policy makers understand the severity of the crisis, IGC India is gathering new evidence around the socio-economic impact of COVID-19. These studies focus primarily on three themes: labour markets, households, and health and wellbeing.
The 1st day began with introductory remarks by Robin Burgess, Director, IGC and Professor of Economics London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He stated that the pandemic’s shock and severity of what is happening now is unparalleled. He stressed on the fact that 1/3rd of people who came out of poverty will be thrown back again into poverty. Ashmita Gupta (ADRI) setting the context of the labour panel stated that as much as 18 million Indian workers will be forced to switch to new occupations by 2030 because of the pandemic. Swati Dhingra (LSE) presented her research on ‘Informal workers and labour market risk during COVID-19 in India’ where shared that there is a demand for active labour market policies such as job guarantees, cash transfers, minimum wages and unionisation. The Government should address the issue urgently. Clément Imbert (University of Warwick) shared that even in the normal situation access to good urban jobs is difficult for rural migrants especially female and SC/ST population. Some of the results pointed out that females who were part of the DDU-GKY actually retained the job even after the lockdown, however for male it is more casual/informal work where men transitioned from salaried jobs to casual jobs more compared to women. With the second wave it will become much more difficult to integrate them back into the labour market. Farzana Afridi (ISI, Delhi) shared that in Delhi, mental distress is relatively higher for women and men’s earnings were lower by 27.8% relative to pre-crisis, while women’s fell by 47%. Dipak Kumar Singh (Government of Bihar) stated that job guarantee programmes cannot be a substitute for social security and highlighted some of the key challenges i.e. MNREGA wage level is very low, registration of informal workers is still a challenge, and many of the skilling jobs and programmes are not aligned with the industry requirements. It is important to think on how social protection measures can be planned such as fixing the minimum wage of the labour and to ensure the registration of informal workers and at the same time how to counterbalance the informalization of the job market.
For setting the tone of the next panel on ‘The economic impact of COVID-19 on households’ Dr Pronab Sen (IGC) stated that nearly 84% of Indian households experienced losses in income since the first lockdown last year. Ashwini Deshpande (Ashoka University) presented her research on the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on rural communities and self-help group members. She shared that labour income was volatile and households ate cheaper food 35% of the time during lockdown. She emphasised that PDS should be made universal along with cash transfer programs. Gaurav Datt (Monash University) discussed his research on livelihoods and COVID-19 in rural Bihar. He stated that nearly every rural household participating in the research was affected by COVID19 and government assistance was disproportionately low relative to the economic impact and many households being excluded due to not meeting the eligibility criteria. Harjot Kaur Bamhrah (Government of Bihar) shared her thoughts on the pandemic’s impact on women highlighting the increasing disparity of the digital divide which prevents women from accessing assistance provided by the government and pursuing higher education. She mentioned that this second wave was different for rural Bihar which seems to have had more impact as compared to last year. The panel shared their concluding thoughts by emphasizing that this second wave is a time of national emergency and it needs to be a first order priority where the central government takes more responsibility and accountability towards dealing with the pandemic.
The next panel was on ‘The economic impact of COVID-19 on health and wellbeing’ which was moderated by Shahid Vaziralli (IGC). For setting the stage, he acknowledged the growing uncertainty around pandemic in India and it’s disastrous impact on food-security. Harlan Downs-Tepper (Duke University) shared his study results on the effects of covid-19 in Patna slums. He stated that half of households in Bangalore slums, and 80% households in Patna Slums lost primary source of income during the lockdown. Mousumi Dutta (Presidency University) discussed her research on the effect of COVID19 on women and children in rural Bihar. She stated that dietary intake of mothers had worsened. Though children seem to be better off but if by focusing on the 18-36 months group, dietary intake has worsened. No significant difference between JEEViKA members and non-members. It also highlighted that political contacts have played a role in accessing Government schemes and buffering dietary intake. The Bihar government has used the PDS successfully to provide a buffer against falling consumption levels. While sharing the research results from Bihar, Sunil Kumar Mishra (IHD) stated that migrant’s households are affected more and have a low dietary diversity. He emphasized that there should be provision of cash transfer to beneficiaries. N Vijaya Lakshmi (Government of Bihar) stated that the Government of Bihar has taken many initiatives with additional cash transfers to households and migrant population. Labour budget was increased under MNREGA for improving rural livelihood. Closing remark was delivered by Dr. Pronab Sen who highlighted that IGC research studies have emphasized on the social and economic impact, on how people and society interact. Many of these studies are micro studies and community level studies which take into account the social structures and behavioural aspects to understand the key determinants to inform government and policy makers to minimise the damage caused by COVID19. It is important to draw lessons from last year and work towards finding a way forward during this pandemic.