NEW DELHI: A lockdown imposed in India to contain the spread of novel coronavirus has left around its 122 million citizens jobless in the country.
According to the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment rate in India has soared to a record of 27.1 percent with millions of daily-wage earners losing their jobs during the lockdown.
The new data reveals that India’s unemployment figures are four times higher than that of the United States, where coronavirus wreaked havoc in the past few weeks.
India has been under lockdown since 25th March to curb Covid-19 infections, causing mass layoffs and heavy job losses. The number of infections in India currently stands at 52,952 more than 1600 casualties.
The employment rate in India hit 23.5 percent in April which is a sharp spike from 8.7 percent in March.
This is caused due to strict restrictions imposed by Narendra Modi led government, bringing most economic activity except essential services such as hospitals, pharmacies, and food supplies to a standstill.
Of the 122 million who have been unemployed, 91.3 million were small traders and labourers. But a fairly significant number of salaried workers 17.8 million and self-employed people 18.2 million have also lost their jobs.
The Indian government has begun to ease restrictions in some areas or zones which have reported a lower number of COVID-19 infections, while strict curfews are still in place in districts that have seen a higher number of Covid-19 positive cases.
Read more: WHO warns of surge in COVID-19 cases if lockdowns eased too soon
