Our Urban Poor need help in the form of an Employment Scheme

Context: COVID-19 has impacted the urban poor in the most debilitating way necessitating government support in the form of employment scheme.

Issues faced by urban poor:

• Identification of urban poor: Following schemes/welfare measures do not specifically identify urban poor.
• The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), 
• Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), 
• Cash transfers to pensioners, widows and the disabled, 
• The National Food Security Act, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)
• Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) package.
• The Pradhan Mantri Street Vendors’ Atma Nirbhar Nidhi (Svanidhi) is specifically for street vendors. 
• Lack of identity due to non-enforcement of Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act 1979.
• Impact of COVID: 
• Loss of livelihoods as India’s contraction identifies construction, trade, hotels, manufacturing and mining as the worst affected.
• COVID-induced restrictions and changes in modes of work, medical costs, and the resultant rise in unemployment, or employment at wages lower than earlier.
• Informal nature of work: More than 80% of the urban workforce is informal, and out of this, roughly half work for wages, and the other half is self-employed.

Issues in devising an Urban Employment Scheme:

• Identification of workers is a problem due to the absence of an MNREGA counterpart for urban poor.

• Regulation and distribution of job cards: is difficult since urban local bodies, with their myriad governance issues, are unable to issue and decide the eligibility of job cards.

• Keeping the wages below the market norms: Since the scheme is supposed to be demand-driven, the wages offered and the number of days of guaranteed employment must both be below market norms. 

• The idea of a demand-driven scheme calls for lower wages and guaranteed workdays, compared to market norms.

• Skill-set up-gradation is required for workers to be employed in urban infrastructure projects, unlike in rural India, along with innovating new avenues of work adept with the urban societal needs.

• Unemployment insurance will be required in times of the unavailability of work.
• Unidentified employers are the unregistered contractors who recruit workers for companies, making it difficult for employers to implement urban jobs scheme.

Way Forward: Extend Pradhan Mantri Rozgaar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY) which provides partial subsidies to employers registered with India’s Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation.

Conclusion: The root problem is that social security is still a work-in-progress, and even more so for migrants.