India Plans Jobs for Workers Who Fled Cities in Virus Lockdown
The 125-day jobs program will be launched in villages across 116 districts in six states scheduled to go for polls.
Watch | Finance Minister Sitharaman Speaks On Rs 50,000-Crore Jobs Scheme
(Bloomberg) -- India’s federal government said it will spend 500 billion rupees ($6.6 billion) on creating temporary jobs in villages for millions of migrant workers who left cities after a nationwide lockdown was put in place to stem the spread of coronavirus.
The 125-day jobs program will be launched in villages across 116 districts in the six states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Odisha and Bihar, which is scheduled to go for polls in coming months. More than 25,000 returnee migrant workers across the six states have been chosen to be part of the plan, according to the statement.
India plans to provide employment to migrant workers and create rural infrastructure through the plan, according to statement issued by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration.
It’s part of India’s $265 billion package to support an economy that’s headed for its first full-year contraction in more than four decades. Millions of laborers undertook often perilous journeys to get to their homes in rural villages, with some forced to walk thousand of miles, after the country’s strict lockdown -- announced with a four-hour notice on March 24 -- wiped out their jobs.
Details of the job guarantee program will be announced on June 20, according to the government statement.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.