-Hindustan Times The PLFS survey covers the July-June period rather than a fiscal or calendar year. So, when NSO released the 2019-20 PLFS report last month, this was supposed to be the first official record of what happened to labour markets during last year’s lockdown. The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO), is the official source of employment and earnings data in India. PLFS numbers are...

-The Hindu It is time to formulate a wage employment-based national urban livelihood scheme similar to MGNREGS During the pandemic, we have again and again faced the difficult choice of saving lives versus protecting livelihoods. According to the World Economic Outlook report of April, 2021 of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), almost all countries, except China, experienced economic contraction last year. The global GDP shrunk by 3.3%. The contraction in the U.S.,...

The recently released quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data broadly confirms the dip in employment and jobs during the countrywide lockdown period, followed by a certain degree of recovery in the post-lockdown months last year as have been indicated by various survey-based studies and research papers. The quarterly bulletin on PLFS provides data on key employment and unemployment indicators i.e. Unemployment Rate (UR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR) and Labour...

-The Hindu Business Line Millions of urban Indian residents are struggling without livelihood opportunities. A national Urban Employment scheme needs to be put in place immediately At long last — and more than a year after the need for such a scheme became obvious — a Parliamentary committee has recommended the institution of an Urban Employment scheme at the national level. The Standing Committee on Labour stated in its report of August 3,...

-The Hindu Business Line As our governments think and rethink lockdown measures and scheme policy interventions, it is time we, as a society collective, pay attention to our children on the brink of irreversible damage What does it mean to lose one’s childhood to unsung labour? What is it like when books are replaced by bricks, playgrounds by agricultural fields, plastic toys with heavy-metal machines, alphabet recitations by silent cries of help?...