Impact of COVID 19 on Own Account Workers in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Introduction :

Entrepreneurs (hereafter defined as own account workers) are vital to the economy especially in the case of poverty alleviation and reducing inequalities in a post-war climate in a country. After slow recovery from the Easter Sunday attacks, COVID 19 is like a second wave of tsunami to the Sri Lankan economy. With a workforce of 8.6 million consisting of 64.5% males and 35.5% females (DCS, 2020), the economy faces a setback due to the onset of COVID 19. According to the World Economic Forum, start-ups had terminated more than 70% of their full-time employee contracts during the pandemic and more than 40% of the start-ups will have cash to run the business only for just less than three months (WEF, 2020). While the global lens indicates insecurity of the startups and small-scale businesses, the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) attempts to investigate the national level impact on own-account workers during the time of COVID 19 lockdown.

CEPA studied the livelihoods of 400+ households across 23 districts to understand the effects of COVID 19 on them. We were unable to make the survey representative due to data collection restrictions. In this paper, we will be analyzing the impact of COVID 19 on own account workers at three levels; the economic impact, COVID 19 and its impact on household activities and perceptions on economic burden in the household.