There have been many ongoing discussions on how the COVID-19 pandemic, which is likely to cast a dark shadow of a recession on the world economy, will change work practices and the nature of jobs in India.
As the cogs of the economy stand immobile due to the lockdown, experts claim the obvious short term implications such as job losses, disruption of supply chains, and losses incurred by travel and tourism industry are bound to happen. However, in the long term, if this crisis is managed well by India, there is a chance of opening up opportunities to revamp the Indian economy, as well as reshape workspaces, and their norms. It will, however, require major restructuring of the governmental framework and the education sector.
In a recent webinar, hosted by Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog, the future of work in India was discussed by a panel that comprised of Junaid Ahmad, country director (India) of World Bank, Debjani Ghosh, Nasscom President, Sunil Munjal, Chairman of Hero Enterprise, Manish Sabharwal, Chairman of Teamlease and Abhiraj Bhal, co-founder of Urban Company. The panelists propounded a definite growth of a gig economy, disagreed with one another on the fate of work-from-home policy in future, discussed the need for social security for all, and the need for employees to test the resilience of employers.
"If we don't use this opportunity to drive radical changes, it is our loss," said Debjani Ghosh, NASSCOM President. "I think this is the beginning of the blended model. We talk about omnichannel, and now we are going to see that at our workplaces. We are going to see the offline and online coming together," she added.
Ghosh pointed out that this pandemic is going to change workspaces forever, and is likely to open up many opportunities for women. "The one thing I am tremendously excited about is that it will bring the much-needed balance in the workplace, in terms of getting the other gender more involved. We have talked a lot about how women cannot go to work because they have to stay at home. But the 'work-from-home' policy will now allow women who want to work to get back to it," she said.
While there are several benefits of work-from-home, many are sceptical about its long-term advantages and suspect that it is a momentary trend which may not continue, at least not on a full scale.
Work-from-home has provided continuity but we will have to see if it will provide productivity in future, said Manish Sabharwal, chairman, Teamlease. "It exposed a class system for sure. Seventy per cent of my graduate employees can work from home, but only 10 per cent of my non-graduate (employees) can do that," added Sabharwal. However, he said that what would really change in a post-pandemic economy is how organisations structure their people supply chain.
Sabharwal also pointed out that post-pandemic one thing that will become a yardstick for evaluating companies is their resilience. "Employees will start evaluating employers for resilience as well as performance. In the last few years, we had forgotten that you have to survive in order to succeed... So, resilience will become an evaluation for employers as much as performance."
Abhiraj Bhal, co-founder of Urban Company said, "World over, many people will get unemployed, and many of them will look towards informal work. They will look towards the gig economy to sustain themselves over the next couple of years and eventually that will become the new normal."
However, that gives rise to another question: how are gig workers likely to sustain themselves with no long term stable jobs, nor social security? Bhal addressed this question and said, "At some stage, both government and private sector will have to think about the gig workers and find a way to let them flourish independently, but also give them some form of social security. For instance, they can allow them to contribute to the National Pension Scheme."
"Now is the time for India to completely revolutionise its social protection system," said Junaid Ahmad, the country director (India) of World Bank.
"We have the PDS, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, also the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana — these have to be brought together on one platform which becomes the social protection system of the future. It will provide protection to informal workers, and portability to migrant workers. It is time India shifted scale on social protection. It is already capable of doing it," he added.
Ahmad also propounded that a complete revamp of the governmental structure is required for India to evolve post-pandemic.
"I am not worried about the private sector. I'm not worried about technology changes and innovation. I think there is huge power in the private sector to innovate. But the key question we are facing is: does this shock (of the pandemic) tell the state that it has to change in the way it governs?" asked Ahmad.
"If the state doesn't change in the way it governs, then all the opportunities that are going to emerge are not going to meet the expectations ... is the state's social protection system going to change? Is the state federalism going to change? Is the state going to change in terms of what continues to be the public sector?" questioned Ahmad. He said that these crucial questions will determine how developing countries fair in a post-pandemic world.
Sunil Munjal, Chairman of Hero Enterprise, said that a new era of glocalisation can dawn on us post-pandemic. "If India manages this crisis well, there is a good chance of attracting more capital, talents, ideas and technology into the country, especially in the manufacturing sector," said Munjal.
"India can take on a bigger role not just for indigenisation, but also for becoming a bigger global power in the manufacturing field. A lot bigger than it had been over the last 30 years. It is a unique opportunity, and we need to repurpose ourselves to some extent, to be able to do that," he added.
As far as skill development of people for the post-pandemic world is concerned Ghosh said that India is already a little ahead since it started the Future Skills Initiative, a little over a year ago. Through this initiative, the change required in the basic curriculum, skills required by students, and the way of learning that's more conducive to the changing times is being identified.
"We got tremendous support from the government.. we have not only built this platform but we also had over 30 to 50 members of the industry involved in it. We are preparing to roll it out," said Ghosh. She added that the platform is getting a lot of traction from universities, as they want to take these curricula and training models to their students, especially after the crisis.
"Blended learning has taken on a completely new meaning. We are seeing a lot more focus on online learning, not just on the school level, but also at a higher level, where it is very much needed," she said.
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