Daily thousands of daily wage workers flock to Delhi’s labour chowks to find a means to make ends meet. According to these workers, the going rate for the day is between 500-600 rupees. But people are hardly getting work for even 10 days of the month.
Unemployment is one of the most pressing challenges of our country.According to the latest Annual Survey of Unincorporated Enterprises (ASUSE) for 2021-22 and 2022-23 released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), nearly half of Indian states and three union territories saw informal sector job losses over seven years. Demonotisation, GST, COVID shocks cost ₹11.3 lakh cr and 1.6 crore informal sector jobs for India. The number of workers employed in the informal sector in 2022-23 has dropped by 16.45 lakh or about 1.5 per cent to 10.96 crore compared to 11.13 crore in 2015-16. With the lack of employment, ration card, medical insurance or even the security of getting enough money to fill the rations, India's informal sector workers are moving back to the villages away from the city they once helped build.