Sasi Nair,
Mumbai April, 14
Many among us have been facing burre din since the novel coronavirus outbreak and the series of lockdowns imposed, first by the central government and later by respective state governments. While some sectors such as IT went online in full flow, others such as Pharma saw their earnings go up and yet many more sectors such as travel and hospitality had their businesses shut.
In any such pandemics and economic slowdown, employee becomes the first to be hit, employers are quick to announce pay cuts, withhold bonuses, or terminate them at the earliest. Many private companies were quick to remove people from jobs citing businesses being shut.
Well several of the new generation youngsters lead a hand-to-mouth existence with many of them having to deal with their monthly EMIs (housing loans, vehicle loans, business loans or personal loans). Remember, banks won’t stop functioning and neither would your EMIs stop, that will come as per the allotted time and money will get deducted. In case one is unable to pay then either they will have to forgo their property or face legal procedures.
Sudden job losses are a norm in private sector but pandemic like this is out of the blue when whole sectors businesses get affected and you don’t have anyone to blame but providence and the pandemic. However, men have to earn one way or the other, if not then it takes an adverse hit on his self-confidence besides listening to their nagging wives or parents, as the case may be. It is always good to earn something than nothing at all and in the process people take up anything as a stop gap arrangement. Some dig into their savings, provident funds or borrow from friends or colleagues while others do whatever they can to cover their expenses. For some it is a matter of life and death and they don’t care about right or wrong or the consequences in the long-term as it is a face saving measure for them.
In a recent incident reported in the media in Bangalore one man began working as a gigolo as he lost his job due to the pandemic, eventually his wife came to know about it, and she decided to end the marriage, counselling did not work in the case and the couple decided to file for divorce. In a similar instance which was recently reported in Ludhiana where police on conducting raids discovered that women from different states who lost their jobs due to the lockdown had been pushed into prostitution. As per media reports, around two-thirds of working women in India had lost their jobs in last year April itself during the first phase of the lockdown and fewer number returned to work in August 2020 during the unlock phase. When a large chunk of people do not have any wage earning work, prosperity and growth are a far cry, worse people will take to crime and crime rate will increase which already is happening.
When household expenses cannot be met then child marriages, drug trafficking, prostitution, rise in domestic violence will be commonplace. Some form of government intervention is the need of the hour. Many women will have to simply give up their career when their parents force her into marriage early, it then depends on husband and in-laws whether they would allow her to work or not. Those who are working are earning only a fraction of what they use to during pre-pandemic days. The impacts of Covid-19 are far more than what can be comprehended right away, it is time to fix the problems immediately and for this the society needs to do its bit, else from burre din we will surely move to more burre waqt.
