More than 80% of the non-agricultural workforce in India depends on the informal sector. This number exceeds 90% if we include agriculture. The impact of COVID-19 has been most severe on this segment of the Indian population and may have led to certain permanent changes in their lives and livelihoods.

In order to deliberate on some of these aspects, the Foundation for Agrarian Studies organised a panel discussion titled “Impact of COVID-19 on Employment in the Informal Sector.”

The event was chaired by Surbhi Kesar (Assistant Professor of Economics, Azim Premji University) whose research areas include labour economics, particularly informality and exclusion.

The panelists for the event were Jayan J. Thomas (Associate Professor of Economics, IIT Delhi), Shamsher Singh (Assistant Professor of Sociology, FLAME University), and Arindam Das (Joint Director, FAS). They spoke on COVID-19 and the informal sector, the migrant worker in the pandemic era, and rural employment and wages respectively.

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