The Labour Standing Committee of Parliament will hold its first meeting on June 23 on the “impact of Covid-19 on rising unemployment and loss of jobs/livelihood in organised and unorganised sectors. Chairman of the panel Bhartruhari Mahtab told BusinessLine that they will demand data on unemployment from the States and Centre.

The panel will also meet trade unions and industry bodies. “It is a vast subject. Number of industries have shut down. Percentage-wise, the employment scenario is very bleak,” Mahtab said.

The committee had submitted a report on the migrant workers earlier. The panel recommended creation of a portal for registering migrant workers. “Large number of migrant workers have left despite efforts of governments. Despite our recommendation that all migrant workers should be registered, it hasn’t happened yet. There is no national portal yet for registration of workers. They will get security only through a national portal,” Mahtab said.

“There is a largescale unemployment among educated, semi-educated and uneducated people. Textiles sector, a major employment generating sector, is severely affected and policy intervention is necessary. MSME sector is also affected. We will try to get the correct data from the governments about the unemployment rate. MGNREGA has also not been able to give an encouraging picture this year. It means that poverty has also risen in the last one year,” he said.

The Central Trade Unions had demanded immediate help to all unorganised/informal sector workers and the unemployed including provision of free food grains and cash subsidy.

“The RBI’s monthly review has flagged the ‘demand shock’ and its consequences. The CMIE report on loss of jobs and growing unemployment is alarming. The research and survey reports of Azim Premji University have concluded that 23 crore people have been pushed below the poverty line and into indebtedness,” former Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said.

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