It’s time for a universal basic income programme

Context:  Universal Basic Income could mitigate looming crisis caused by dwindling job opportunities.

Challenges to employment in India

• Disruptive technologies: productive gains with artificial intelligence and reduced human capital requirements, making jobs a premium. A microcosm of these trends can be seen in the Silicon Valley.
• Lack of political willing: the idea of quasi-basic income schemes costing 5% of GDP as proposed in the Economic Survey 2016-17 and the IMF was shelved due to lukewarm response
• Informal Employment: 90% of India’s workforce in informal sector with lack of social security.
• Pre-pandemic Struggle: Due to lack of structural reforms, job opportunities were declining incentives.

Advantages of UBI:

• Poverty Eradication tool: Countries like Kenya Brazil, Finland and Switzerland have already begun controlled UBI pilots.

• Providing relief against unemployment: It could mitigate the crisis due to lockdown and lost job opportunities.

Way Forward: IMF’s projection of negative economic growth worldwide and 1.9% in India shows that the need of the hour is to provide unconditional pay checks in the hand of people until the economy normalises.