In the last week of March, barely a week after the central government enforced a nationwide lockdown to contain Covid-19, Vinita Kale (name...
In the last week of March, barely a week after the central government enforced a nationwide lockdown to contain Covid-19, Vinita Kale (name changed) was laid off from work.
The 44-year-old was an accountant at a mid-sized biomedical company, bringing home Rs 12,000 a month. This was a small but valued supplement to her husband’s earnings as a real estate agent and the manager of a temple trust. The Kales lived a comfortable, middle-class life in a rented apartment in suburban Mumbai.
“We had enough savings and we were not stressed, but when the lockdown happened so suddenly, all our income stopped,” said Kale, who has been unemployed for five months. Her husband’s freelance work gradually restarted in July, but his income has been meagre and sporadic.
With their savings almost dried up, a stable, salaried job would have been a ray of hope for Kale – it would help pay the rent they still owe their landlord for the past month and the Rs 16,000 pending college fee for her son’s computer science course. “But I’m not likely to get my old job back, and I have not been able to find a new one so far,” she said.
In the midst of a global economic downturn...
