Covid-19 Affected Workers of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises

Purpose

India announced the first lockdown starting from March 25, 2020, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have limited finances, workforce, and operations regarding products or services and do not have the resources to deal with such unexpected lockdowns. This study is to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the workers of MSMEs.

Methods

An e-questionnaire in the local language was circulated to 444 workers, out of which 426 participated in the study. Result: 98.6% of females earned Rs 5000 to 10000 per month. 95.6% females and 72.1% males saved less than Rs 2000 per month. 25.8% of micro 8.4% of small and 17.2% of the medium-scale workers were not aware of the updates on COVID-19. 70.55% of medium and micro-scale workers stayed at home compared to 45.1% of small-scale workers. 99.7% of micro and small and 93.8% of medium- scale workers regularly sanitized hands at the workplace. 41.9% micro, 84.2% small, and 69% of medium-scale workers said that the COVID-19 outbreak impacted their social life. The pandemic impacted 64.5% micro, 92.9% small, and 97.4% of medium-scale workers’ earnings. 80.6% micro, 97.3% small & 90.5% of medium-scale workers were provided financial assistance by their companies. 80% of medium and micro-scale workers & 94.9% of small-scale workers said they were satisfied with the response/action taken by local municipal authorities.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the socio-economic lives of MSME workers. There is an impact of information about the COVID19 outbreak shared by the Govt. of India and social media.

Imprint

Alaka Chandak, Rajiv Yeravdekar, Rajesh Shinde, Kirti Bhosale. Covid-19 Affected Workers of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises. Cardiometry; Issue 23; August 2022; p.765-772; DOI: 10.18137/cardiometry.2022.23.765772; Available from: https://www.cardiometry.net/issues/no23-august-2022/covid-19-affected-workers