COVID Impact on Household Budgets - Professors Trichy Krishnan, Ashish Rathore & Suresh Ramanathan

A comparison between Karnataka and the Rest of India shows the differences in distribution of the workforce, with wage labourers forming only 10 percent of the workforce in Karnataka while they formed 16 per cent in the Rest of India. Self-employed entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs and white-collar professionals however accounted for 57 per cent of the workforce in Karnataka but only 33 per cent in the Rest of India. Interestingly, there was no major difference in loss of income between the rural and urban population: the percentage drop was almost the same. However, what was more intriguing was how people planned to cope with the loss in income. Unlike rural households, which appeared more inured to the loss of income, urban households were more likely to sell assets such as their cars to cope.