Vijayawada: Unorganised sectors bear the lockdown brunt

Vijayawada: Thousands of workers in the unorganised sector in and around Vijayawada will be badly affected due to the lockdown imposed in the city, as part of the nationwide shutdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Most of the workforce in the city depend on the unorganised sector working in wholesale and retail shops, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, medium and small-sized super bazaars, textile malls, jewellery showrooms, furniture shops and other commercial establishments.

Due to closure of these shops, super markets and wholesale shops, the owners may not be in a position to pay salaries/wages for next month. Trading activity has declined drastically in the state and city for many months due to the impact of nationwide economic slowdown.

Consequently, thousands of workers have to wait for the payment of wages by owners next month. These workers earn between Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000 depending on the nature of work and experience. It is estimated that about 2 lakh workers are eking out a livelihood in the unorganised sector in the city.

"Construction and health sectors are two other sectors that generate lot of employment in the city. Construction sector provides employment to over 50,000 workers," said M V Sudhakar, general secretary of CITU.

Sudharkar said already the construction sector had been in crisis due to economic slowdown as well as shifting of capital from Amaravati to Vizag. Moreover, halting of sand supply for nearly four months also badly hit the construction sector last year.

Vijayawada is the commercial capital of Andhra Pradesh. Wholesale and retail shops, distributors, stockists and agents provide livelihood to thousands of workers.

It is estimated that more than 15,000 hamalis here play a vital role in loading and unloading of goods in One Town, Hanumanpet, Gandhi Nagar, Auto Nagar, Labbipet and Gollapudi wholesale market. The trading activity has already down in the city for many months due to economic slowdown. Hamalis will have no work for many weeks if the lockdown continues. Now, the shutdown will have a huge impact because of restrictions imposed on shops, hotels, restaurants and malls.

Due to coronavirus threat and government restrictions, the shops are opened between only for three to four hours a day. Police barricades, halting of transport sector and stalling of imports into city from other states will be a big blow to the trading activity for one or two months.

In this backdrop, the traders and owners of super markets, business establishments, distributors, super stockists, wholesale dealers may not be in a position to pay wages for the month. Most hospitals have closed regular medical services and asked the staff not to attend duties for some weeks. So, there is no guarantee that nurses, para-medical staff, receptionists, lab technicians and others will get salary.

CPM state secretariat member Chigurupati Babu Rao said unorganised sector workers will be badly affected due to coronavirus scare. He lamented that all sectors were badly affected due to coronavirus and due to unavoidable circumstances lockdown has been imposed in the city and country.

Though the Union government announced to pay Rs 500 to the poor for three months and the state government decided to pay Rs 1,000 on April 4, Babu Rao felt it is not sufficient and demanded that the state government should pay Rs 5,000 to each family due to prevailing conditions.

On the other hand, the traders announced support to the lockdown in view of virus threat. Vijayawada Chamber of Commerce president V Bhaskara Rao said the traders would extend full support for lockdown in the interest of the nation as well as to check the spread of coronavirus though they may lose business.