India Needs Policy Intervention to Uplift its Urban Poor

Context: Slum residents in India have been hit hard by the pandemic, arguably harder than people in similar circumstances in rural areas.

Issues with the urban poor:

• Impact of Pandemic: Survey conducted in slum of Bengaluru and Patna shows - 
• Loss of livelihoods: more than 80% of the residents lost their income sources by April and by June, only 33% of their pre-pandemic incomes had been recovered.
• Pushed Poverty: Families have to cut back on food or other essentials and needed to borrow money to meet requirements.
• Lack of policy support: of the kind provide in the West during its urbanization increased their vulnerability due to precariousness and volatility of circumstances.
• Multiple informalities:  More than 70% have homes without titles, and 40% lack identity papers needed to access entitlements and most of them have informal jobs.
• Threat to jobs: As automation progresses, and each new car requires fewer labour inputs, the growth of good jobs will become even slower, forcing people into the informal sector and the gig economy. 

Way Ahead: Need of Policy Interventions for - 

• Address the ill-effects of informality: 

• Slum residents should be provided with formal jobs with written contracts.
• Provide more secure working conditions: with work- place protection, old-age support, and health care benefits. 
• Ensure good jobs and upward mobility through interventions in education, skills training and incentivising entrepreneurship.
• Some small-scale social mobility promoting organizations include Prerana in Bengaluru, Udaan Foundation in Mumbai, and CSRL in various cities.
• Reducing risks and stabilizing livelihoods. The process of slum notification needs to be expedited, so the threat of demolition passes, even if individual titles are not given immediately.
• Affordable and reliable health care: by promoting the cause and targets of Ayushman Bharat.