An Uneven Burden

Context: Pandemic may not have class or community bias. Its economic fallout does.

Impact of the pandemic on minorities/vulnerable

• Social boycott: With the start of the pandemic in March 2020, there were rumours of certain social groups being super-spreaders. This affected labour market outcomes differently for different communities.
  • The recent Periodic Labour Force Survey for 2019-20 brings out the changes in the employment structure and earnings of workers of different communities in rural and urban areas during April-June 2020 (pandemic quarter).
• Stark impact on Muslims and SC/ST: Among the self-employed - 
  • The percentage of persons with no work among the self-employed among the SC/ST population, Muslims and others (non-SC/ST and non-Muslim) increased from 6.9 %, 8.6 % and 5.5 %, respectively, to 15.1 %, 27.5 % and 13.7 %, respectively.
  • People with no work formed 7.7 %, 11 % and 7.1 % of SC/STs, Muslims and others, respectively, and these went up to 39.2 %, 42.6 % and 39.3 %, respectively. Muslims stand out with the highest rate of unemployment.
• Impact on women: The unemployment rate also went up sharply for women from 6.3 % to 44 % over this period, the corresponding figures for men being 7.8 % and 39.0 %, respectively.
• Fall in average incomes: In rural areas, monthly earnings during the Covid quarter were 9 % less than the average for the year 2019-20. The deficit, however, is 21 % in urban areas.
  • In rural areas: 
    • Muslims, in rural areas, recorded a maximum decline of 13 %, while for the others, it was close to the average.
    • SC/STs suffered the least damage, possibly due to the indispensable nature of their services. 
    • The gap for both men and women turned out to be about 9 %, similar to the average in rural areas. 
  • In urban areas:
    • The maximum loss suffered — 27 % — is by the SC/ST community. 
    • For the Muslims and the others, the corresponding figure was 20 %. 
    • The earning loss for Muslims is less than their employment loss. This suggests that their job losses have been more at the lower level. 
    • In the case of the SC/ST population, earning losses have been across the board, resulting in higher earning deficits than the Muslims. 
    • The deficit is marginally higher for women than men, despite a high deficit in employment. This again can be explained in terms of greater loss of jobs for women at the lower level.