Livelihoods: With the Maharashtra government imposing night curfews and mini-lockdowns, remittances to rural India have dropped by 10 percent. Maharashtra is one of the biggest contributors of domestic remittances with a 15-20 percent share of the market.
Fears that Delhi will also impose similar curbs on movement have started affecting the informal labour force with many of them seeking to return home once again to their villages.
Major remittance companies such as Fino Payments and Eko India are seeing a decline in remittances. “We are already seeing a fall in our remittance business and Maharashtra has been the worst affected, with a 10 percent fall. Our field officers are indicating that some amount of reverse migration could further impact these numbers,” said Rishi Gupta, MD, Fino Payments Bank.
Fino and Eko process remittances worth INR 3,000 crore and INR 2,500 crore every month. “The remittance business was just recovering from the impact of the lockdown and labour migration last year. Our fear is that if localised lockdowns extend beyond a week or a fortnight, those would impact the business negatively,” said Abhinav Sinha, co-founder, Eko India. “Night curfews in the biggest remittance corridors have brought a complete halt to payments after 8 pm,” he added.
Read this article on the economic implications of COVID-19 for rural India.