"Govt, Civil Society & Trade Unions Must Protect Returning Migrants, Says ILO Specialist", 21 May 2020

...Shabari Nair, Regional Migration Specialist, Decent Work Technical Support Team (DWT) for South Asia and India at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) says that workers in India will suffer job losses and recovery of sectors in India will be slow.

He details that the returning Indian migrants are landing in wrecked domestic job market, which offers limited social protection and an almost non-existent re-integration policy environment.

Here is the full interview.

1. What is the ILO situation assessment so far of the impact of COVID- 19 on jobs globally and in South Asia?

ILO has published three monitoring updates so far. According to the recent update, global working hours in the second quarter are expected to be 10.5% lower than in the last pre-crisis quarter. This is equivalent to 305 million full-time jobs, which represents a significant increase on ILO’s previous estimate of 195 million.

Almost 1.6 billion informal economy workers, or 76% of informal employment worldwide are significantly impacted by the current crisis. In the context of India, ILO monitors have mentioned that about 400 million people working in the informal economy are at risk of falling deeper into poverty due to stringent lockdown measures implemented in the country.

Among those women are over-represented. In the first month of the crisis, average earnings for informal workers are estimated to decline by 60% globally...