Extension of lockdown: Many worried about their job prospects

New Delhi: People across Delhi-NCR have serious concern over extension of lockdown period as they fear job loss and closure of their business with no hope of relief from the government.

People, mainly belonging to service and business class, have a common feeling—after staying for three weeks at home—they are not ready for next round of extension. They stressed that there must be conditional relief for sections engaged in service and business sectors and if restriction is continued in same way, it will be disastrous for each and everyone.

The region is considered as hub for service and business class and even for working professionals but since the shutdown has been imposed, people engaged in these sectors had to stop their work. Whether government employees or private sector employees, businessmen, factory workers, casual and daily labrourers, almost all have either migrated or stayed inside their homes waiting for the restrictions to end.

"We were in our homes waiting for the lockdown to be over but failed to get relief. Now since period has been extended, we will have to either face job loss or whopping salary cut. Even if we are allowed to continue our job till the ongoing crisis gets over, we may be axed later due to the consequences of the lockdown," said Avinash Tiwari, an employee working with a private firm in Gurugram.

"Among the list of worst-hit sectors, real estate is at the top. The sector was witnessing slowdown since several years due to unavoidable circumstance and now the lockdown has forced the sector to collapse. Neither can we close our operations nor can we run it. We have invested our money in this and if lockdown continues in such way, we will have to close it permanently," said Rakesh Kumar, a small time Noida-based realtor.

Another blow is migration of labrouers from the area to their native places. Such migrants were main source of manpower in tens of thousands of factories, companies and establishments but since they have left, there has been scarcity at workforce.

"About 500 workers were in our factory located near Labour Chowk in Noida besides thousands working in nearby factories. They migrated as countrywide shutdown was announced. Now since another round of restriction has been implemented, it will be difficult for them to come again and get settled as they will try to settle in their native states," said Mohit Aggarwal, a senior employee working with garment export house.

Fear among employees working in IT and engineering sectors can be judged from the fact that there might be a massive job cut due to worldwide closure of their operations and Tuesday's announcement of extension of lockdown period made the matters worse.

"We are already on the radar but were hopeful from the government's side. Now with fresh round of restrictions, we feel insecure about our job and future prospects. If things are not normalised, we will be in deep crisis. Here I can only say that at this juncture jobs of thousands of people are at risk and hence people were not ready for restrictions again," said Raj Singh, an IT sector employee in a Noida based MNC.