On the other hand, over 1.70 lakh people lost jobs every hour during the month of April 2020, according to the report. The Centre For Monitoring Economic Research, a Mumbai- based think tank, has often pointed out that the employment outlook is not improving even as the country’s economy recovers. During the initial months of the pandemic, most of the job losses were from the informal sector, which is still struggling. The Oxfam report suggested that 75 per cent or over 9 crore of 12.2 jobs lost due to the pandemic were from the informal sector, where income levels are already low.

Millions of migrant labourers were displaced due to the pandemic and they were left without a job, income and even7 food.”The mass exodus on foot triggered by the sudden lockdown and the inhuman beating, disinfection and

quarantine conditions the informal workers were subjected to turned a health emergency into a humanitarian crisis,” Over 300 informal workers died due to the lockdown, with reasons ranging from starvation, suicides, exhaustion, road

and rail accidents, police brutality, and denial of timely medical care.