Suicides due to unemployment highest in Covid hit 2020 

What is the news?  

A reply from Ministry of home affairs to a question in Rajya Sabha has revealed that Over 16,000 people committed suicide due to bankruptcy or indebtedness while 9,140 people ended their lives due to unemployment between 2018 and 2020.  

How has pandemic led to this problem? 

The highest number of such cases were reported in 2020. The pandemic led to the imposition of a lockdown in the country, which resulted in large-scale job losses and economic slowdown in many sectors. 

What are the steps that govt has taken since the pandemic started for employment and income generation? 

Government had launched a number of programmes like Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana to incentivise employers for creation of new jobs along with social security benefits.  

The National career service (NCS) project for jobseekers and employers for job matching and also has a repository of career content for jobseekers. 

Apart from these Programmes such as Make in India, Digital India, Swachh bharat mission, AMRUT, etc will also help in employment generation. 

Source-This post is based on the article “Suicides due to unemployment highest in Covid hit 2020” published in The Hindu on 10^th Feb 2022.