A case for state-funded livelihood insurance for the informal economy in the era of COVID-19
As the famous opening lines of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities go, most challenging times often mask opportunities for transformational changes moving hurdles in few weeks that might have taken generations otherwise. But only if nations are successful in leveraging from any unprecedented popular support for epochal public action. As the global pandemic of COVID-19 spreads its uncertain tentacles across continents, an increasing number of countries – including India, most recently – is entering into various degrees of lockdown of all social and economic activities as the core strategy to contain the infection’s spread. But, the ripple-effects and aftershocks following the slack in economic activities is all set for a disproportionate impact across the workforce. This largely follows from the typical structural pattern of the forms and nature of employment which varies significantly across countries – more than 75% of the employed population in Europe works in the form...