Job Loss, Depression During Lockdown Phase

The link between unemployment, economic shock and suicide is highly replicated in population health accompanied by the anxiety of virus with the economic shock along with physical distancing. During the beginning of year 2020 the ratio of unemployment started continuously rising with continuous shutdown of all sectors. This worst phase of lockdown put the economy in a doldrums with lowest growth rate, higher unemployment rate especially in informal sector and higher rate of mental illness, anxiety, financial burden, low per capita income etc. In simple terms unemployment refers to situation when individuals are ready to work at the prevailing wage rate but unable to get the job due to many existing factor’s and one of the main factor now which lead the higher ratio of unemployment is the phase of covid19. It has been clearly observed that losing your job is one of life’s most stressful experiences .Apart from financial burden , losing of a job can also take a heavy impact on your mood, relationship and overall mental and emotional health which in turn lead to force the youth for suicide particularly in the age group of 15- 25 year’s. As per Asian Development Bank and International labour organization report, nearly 6.1 million youth in the age group of 12-25 may lose their jobs if the virus is not contained by September 2020. It is also observed that youth unemployment rate will increase to 32.5 percent which gives us complete figure how much it would impact the youth population physically, financially and mentally.
Work at home would be the successful opportunities for skilled educated youths to work during this pandemic at their respective homes. Also government should start direct credit transfer scheme to support those youth who lost their jobs and now facing the financial crisis and are the victims of mental depression.
Consumers’ pyramids Household survey came to conclusion in their survey that the share of those age less than 39 in total employment declined from 20.9 percent in FY20 to 18.8 percent during April June 2020. This suggests that youth and also younger women’s particularly were most affected in terms of job losses during the Lockdown. As per the centre for monitoring Indian economy (CMIE) the covid 19 crisis has led to a spike in the country’s unemployment rate to 27.11 percent as compared to 7 percent before the start of pandemic in mid March. The unemployment rate was generally found more in urban areas 29.22percent as compared to 26.69 percent for the rural areas. The USA has seen a huge spike in unemployment as over 26 million people have claimed of job loss. In South India Pondicherry recorded the highest no of unemployment at 75. 8 percent followed by neighboring countries Tamil Nadu 49.8 percent, Jharkhand 47.1 percent. About 90 percent of Indian workforce of 500 million is engaged in the informal sector. The continuous lockdown has forced millions of these people out of jobs. Now it’s the responsibility of the government during this pandemic to tackle the issues of unemployment .Government should come with new policies to control the level of unemployment and to protect the young generation further impacted by the negative externalities of lockdown. Work at home would be the successful opportunities for skilled educated youths to work during this pandemic at their respective homes. Also government should start direct credit transfer scheme to support those youth who lost their jobs and now facing the financial crisis and are the victims of mental depression.
(The author is a freelancer. Views are his own)[email protected]