Open Forum
New Delhi, 21 October
2020
Trending Work
CHANGING, MORE FREELANCE
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
Generating and providing
employment is a big challenge for a country like India. The nature and type of
work has been consistently changing, more so with the pandemic as also the
shrinking in the types of jobs available to ensure economies of scale. Interestingly,
for the technically equipped personnel, self-employment and consultancy are
concepts gaining ground to ensure work.
According to a study,
there has been 70-75 per cent spike in freelance positions in April and HR solutions
firm PeopleStrong has estimated that 25-30 per cent of the workforce in sectors
such as Internet business companies, IT, ITES, start-ups, hospitality,
quick-service restaurants, retail and logistics will eventually be converted to
freelance roles. The demand for freelancers is growing as firms get used to
remote working or work from home, to cut down health risks as well as costs
during the pandemic.
The change over by
organisations and workers alike follows the lockdown. Since then, the companies
have been looking at ways to reduce costs, one of which is by converting
full-time positions into freelance. At the same time, the pandemic has made
companies conscious that work can be done remotely with productivity not
necessarily going down. As such, firms are now looking at more work-from-home
opportunities.
This can be a
much-needed opportunity for women workforce, mainly those constrained by time, location
and space, and specially in Tier2 cities. However, it will curb work
opportunities of males and create household tension. By and large, women are
preferred in work places as they are able to do different tasks and are found
to be hardworking, efficient and sincere. The ability of women folk to adjust
in a different work environment has found them to be more acceptable in the new
work environment.
Mainstream roles such
as software development and SAP consultants are for the asking as freelance
opportunities as often a fall-back option for those hit by employment shocks –
an intermediate state between employment, unemployment and possible
re-employment.
There is a marked
deviation not just in the nature and type of job but steady overcrowding in a
particular office has too been done away with. A large number of people appear
to have adopted to work from home schedule and rarely need to travel to office
for discussion with the higher authorities. The online work does enable savings
for firms as well as the employee.
However, there is
need for a word of caution. The new work trend is leading to a situation whereby
contractual appointment will be on the rise and fixed salary appointments will
steadily come down. Moreover, online and the digital mechanisation playing a
crucial role in various operations, requirement for personnel will come down
steadily. Besides, artificial intelligence playing a bigger role cannot be
ruled out in various sectors, thereby further thwarting job opportunities.
The problem of
employment will obviously be more pronounced in the country, with very high population
amongst the working group. According to estimates of the International Labour organisation
(ILO) and the Asian Development Bank, as many as 41 lakh youths lost their jobs
because of the pandemic, majority being in the construction and farm sectors. Recall
among the haunting images of the lockdown are those of hundreds of thousands of
out-of-work migrant workers trudging back home and that the government’s much-hyped
‘stimulus package’ has been an eyewash, proving to be miniscule in economic
recovery.
Understandably, it’s impossible
to create job opportunities for the entire large workforce, not because of the unprecedented
crisis triggered by the pandemic, but due to the nature of employment changing over
the years. Automation has become the order of the day across the globe for
better efficiency and greater productivity.
An emerging problem
in the workplace is the new inequality of skills and the consequent
inequalities of income and wealth rendered. Anyone who is not clever enough to
continuously change becomes useless, unproductive and unemployable. The
category could include the poor and the deprived--new entrants in the army of
redundancy. The challenge would be providing work to keep this class under
control, technology-enabled round-the-clock surveillance, checking arbitrary
violence and misinformation about the precarious state of affairs.
Meanwhile, in a
recent survey, which covered 34 districts in Eastern India, the average income
plummeted 85 per cent by mid-August among returned migrant workers, while 35
per cent of them had no work at all. It discovered that two-thirds now want to
return to their outstation workplaces, the continuing hardship forcing a change
of heart after millions vowed never to step out again following the miseries of
the initial days of lockdown. The survey covered 2917 returned migrants in 34
districts in West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and
Jharkhand. Some 67.64% wanted to return to their workplaces.
Though Rs 40,000
additional allocation has been made under MGNREGA, it provided employment to a
mere 3.53 per cent of returned migrants. Also half were paid less than the
minimum and over 35% had no work. Thus, State support has been missing. It has further
complicated the situation in the country, where majority of the workforce is in
the informal sector. Worse, the government claimed that they do not have the
numbers or any list of migrant workers who worked in different States.
Undoubtedly, to revitalise
the economy, effective labour reforms are needed. With barely 20 per cent of
labour covered under major laws, it is necessary for achieving convergence
between organised and unorganised sectors and formal and informal workers.
States must take up labour reforms, together with positive sentiment for unorganised
workers as a package in collaboration with industry.
The overall problem
indicates a substantial job loss, not just in these past six months but shall
spill over to the next year. The responsibility of the State is to seriously mull
over ways to overcome the crisis. Obviously, more funds, at least other Rs
40,000 crore, are required to be allocated for employment scheme and an
extension of the number of days from 100 to 120 days, among others.
Governments and the
private sector need to shift focus on the one hand to labour-intensive
strategies and on the other technology-driven sectors, as work and employment needs
a clear overhaul. At the same time, the rural sector needs sharps focus and
must be the key in planning the new transformation, where there is enormous
potential for work opportunities as also generating self-employment. The planners need to understand and accept
the ongoing change for only then shall they be able to evolve an effective
strategy.---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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