Already, however, India has paid a heavier economic price for the lockdown than have many countries initially hit harder by covid-19. In March alone no fewer than 140m workers are thought to have lost their jobs, catapulting the unemployment rate from 8% to an unprecedented 26% nationwide (see chart). Some 10m-80m migrants—the vagueness of the estimates speaks of the invisibility of the working underclass of street hawkers, labourers and factory hands—have despaired and tried to return to impoverished villages. Millions more Indians who work abroad have either sharply reduced their remittances or plan to return home. The 10% of the workforce in formal employment has fared better, but this is partly because employers have held off firing them for as long as possible. Only now are those cuts multiplying.
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