GENDER IMPLICATIONS OF COVID19 LOCKDOWN ON THE INFORMAL SECTOR OF THE INDIAN ECONOMY.

Lockdown as a result of COVID19 pandemic that demands 'social distancing' has impacted employment and income, health and sanitation, education of children and safety of women in the organised informal sector enormously. Contribution of women in the informal sector of the Indian Economy is both as lowly paid wage workers as well as unpaid family workers. Due to nature of livelihood, housing and living condition and lack of purchasing power, it is impossible for them to the official advisories. The workers (both men and women) living in rented rooms, street vendors, domestic workers, home-based workers, construction workers in the urban, peri urban and rural areas, tobacco workers, agricultural labourers, artisans, tailors, door to door moving financial/banking agents, dabbawallas/tiffin services, industrial workers in manufacturing units, courier men, weavers, animal carers, vegetable-fruit-cloth vendors, recycling workers and waste pickers, sanitary workers, hospitality staff, factory workers, auto rickshaw and taxi drivers, auxiliary nurses-midwives-ward boys, daily wage labourer, petty shop owners are facing near starvation conditions. Nearly 60% of them are migrant workers with hardly any support system in the neo-liberal cities governed by the gated communities and decision makers. It is demand of the day to establish market linkages for production units and social enterprises to stitch and distribute masks to the informal sector workers, to produce cost sanitisers and hand wash, launch awareness campaigns-videos, voice messages, WhatsApp forwards that provide social solidarity in the midst of physical distancing. The state needs to ensure timely access to cash through banking and long-term continuation of relief help, community kitchens and free testing facilities for the workers who are the backbone of the Indian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]