Unmaking India Remaking Indians

70,00,000. That’s about 8 per cent of India’s labour force. That’s the number of people who were left jobless in April alone. A higher number of comrades are likely to join in May as the virus continued to ravage the nation on its second onslaught. Which one is a bigger cause for concern? Seven million people falling out of jobs in just one month or three lakh lives being snuffed out in just one year? Both the realities inexorably drive home the most pertinent question of this time: How to save whatever is left? The second wave of the pandemic is expected to cost India around $74 billion or Rs 5.4 lakh crore in the April-June 2021 quarter, predicts Barclays. The brokerage estimated the economic cost of the partial lockdowns that various state governments have imposed to check the spread of the disease at $8 billion per week in May – up from $5.3 billion a week in...