Revisiting Development Discourse amidst Informal Sector Crises COVID-19 Pandemic

Authors

Anjan Chakrabarti, The University of North Bengal, West BengalFollow
Pooja Sharma, Daulat Ram College, University of DelhiFollow

Abstract

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, India has experienced a severe catastrophe of the informal sector, related to both health and livelihood. The informal sector and migrant workers are closely linked and they became easy prey during the nationwide lockdown at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The informal sector, primarily a fallout of the prevailing dual economy, makes it highly imperative to revisit not only India’s growth and development process but also the distribution. The paper attempts to evaluate the development process adopted by developing countries and their relevance in terms of growth and inequality. The study finds the missing link of the theory of distribution of welfare economics. Lack of emphasis on equitable distribution resulted in a wide gap between the rich and poor. The informal sector crises of COVID-19 has ignited the predominance of regional inequalities in the development process on account of the dual economy and has widened the regional disparities at inter and intra-state level. By settling the migrants in their native place with the holistic economic package, comprising of technology, skills and advancement that will contribute to the rural economy in the long term. The need to institutionalize the regional or localized financial sector, health and social infrastructure has been emphasized in the paper as a long-term solution. the responsibility of informal crises in most developing countries is mainly of development discourse. There is a need to revisit the development process adopted by developing countries. The state must address the acute inequality aggravated due to the existing informal sector and implement the policies of health security during Pandemic crises.

Type of Issue

Special issue

Recommended Citation

Chakrabarti, Anjan and Sharma, Pooja (2022) "Revisiting Development Discourse amidst Informal Sector Crises COVID-19 Pandemic," International Journal on Responsibility: Vol. 5: Iss. 2, Article 7.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.62365/2576-0955.1069
Available at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/ijr/vol5/iss2/7

DOI

10.62365/2576-0955.1069

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.