New Delhi : As the lockdown enters its third phase, Centre is blinded to the starvation faced by its large population. It continues to ignore demands for a second package to revive the country’s ruined economy. Joblessness has pushed crores of people to the verge of starvation. While even small countries have announced sizeable packages to help economy get going, the Centre’s earlier package was hardly one percent of national GDP.
Micro, small and medium scale businesses have been hit the hardest and yet no relief has reached these segments. Around 11,000 crore livelihoods have been off-set in the small, medium and micro enterprises sector. Incidentally, these sectors generate 30 percent of the country’s GDP. The Centre is yet to take a call on demands from the Opposition parties, private businesses and economic experts, to come forth with a package to rescue these segments.
Accute Hunger :
Crores of people, particularly the migrant workers, daily wage earners, street vendors and several others whose survival depends on their daily earnings, are faced with acute starvation. According to Indian Council For Research on International Economics, if the annual income were to deplete by even 25 percent, the numbers of people below the poverty mark will rise from present 21.9 percent of the population to 46.3.
Income for people in the unorganised sector has fallen by more than 25 percent since lockdown. 86 percent of the migrant workers are left without income. The agricultural sector too lies in ruins.
States Left Without Rescue Funds From Centre
The Centre is shying away from assistance to States even as they grapple with depleted tax incomes on one hand and paying for health and welfare responses of their populations. The Centre will not release long overdue GST compensations nor is it in mood to accede to State demands that borrowing limits be increased to 5 percent of GST income. An expert committee appointed by govt in Maharashtra had recommended that Centre borrow from RBI to aid states. The Centre has no plans to help states on the front lines of fight against Covid-19 either. The picture is grim.
