Livelihoods at stake for millions as employment crisis gets the coronavirus

India's economy, even when it is growing, doesn't create enough quality jobs, and a nationwide lockdown to contain Covid-19 has created an employment calamity, writes Mahesh Vyas

The average number of persons employed in India during 2019-20 was 403.8 million, according to estimates derived from CMIE's Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (CPHS). In the past four years, this number hasn't progressed much.

Four years ago, in 2016-17, this number was in fact much higher at 406.1 million. It receded to 405.9 million in 2017-18 and then further to 400.9 million in 2018-19 before recovering slightly to the 403.8 million estimate for 2019-20.

In spite of sustained growth in the real GDP, large representative household surveys in India have systematically shown that employment does not grow. On the contrary,