The economic impact of 2020 coronavirus pandemic in India has been largely disruptive. Many businesses shut shop. Some temporarily and some permanently. Many people lost their job. And many households felt the impact of the dwindling economy. After months of uncertainty as the lockdown is being lifted, businesses are opening up and employers are calling back their employees to work. Though many are ready to get back to work, not everyone is able to. For, there seems to be no one to take care of their young children as child care providers are still not available.
From the Agricultural revolution to the Industrial revolution to Computerization to IT revolution to the Internet of Things, society has moved from necessities, to needs to wants and to progress. On the family front also there has seen a sea change in the same period of time, from joint families to nuclear families where only the husband worked to nuclear families where both husband and wife worked to make both ends meet. With this change came the need for child care centres. In fact, it became not just a need but a very essential service.
But in the wake of COVID 19, lockdown became the norm and with entire families at home, child care became a service that no longer was essential or inevitable.
After more than 100 days of lockdown, as the country realizing the need to normalize the economy, began relaxation in lockdown rules. This resulted in a slow but steady reopening of businesses and services. However, with the age-old belief about the children and old age people have comparatively lesser immunity, the fear of COVID 19 affecting them the most, is a prominent thought among the general public. This resulted in no schools, playschools, crèches, daycare centres being allowed to reopen.
However, reopening the economy will go nowhere without rebuilding and expanding childcare facilities. Let us check some facts here. Not every company offers work from the option. Unlike IT companies, companies in other sectors may not be able to / cannot get their work done by workers sitting at home. They need them at the manufacturing units or the offices as the case may be. This creates problems for couples living in nuclear families that don’t have any other support to watch over the kids. It is not clear when, or if, parents will be able to get back to the office with
schools and daycares closed. These parents are left to figure out, largely on their own, how to go about their jobs and parenting at the same time.
In pre-COVID 19 era many a company had shown a positive trend in the employee retention even up to 80% once the child care facilities were opened up in their premises or nearby areas. Now with those facilities shut citing the transmission possibilities of the pandemic, the end result would be a disproportionate impact on women employees. Most of the working women are at high risk of dropping out of the workforce altogether to raise their children. In such a scenario, companies will face a huge task of getting back the productivity of yesteryears. This will definitely have an adverse effect on the economy.
A smoothly functioning economy is one in which people who want to work are able to do so. Eventually, the crisis will pass and the daycares will reopen but when they do, we should not forget this painful lesson. Affordable and accessible childcare plays an important role in making a smoothly functioning economy, a reality.
