Why is work-from-home a privilege in India?
The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us more about pragmatism than any book has ever discussed. With human beings adjusting to their quarantined life, owing to the pandemic, celebrities, and common-people alike — the internet is flooded with all individuals sharing their quarantine regime, the most famous one being #WorkFromHome.
‘Work-from-home’ — three words that have now become a lifestyle, owing to the coronavirus crisis, is essentially a metaphor for privilege. How you ask, let’s dwell on it.
Firstly, to successfully access this privilege, one must have work — also defined as the period one spends in paid employment. But, as per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CME), 140 million people, or 14% of India’s working-age population, have lost their jobs during the lockdown (as of April 2020). Since the nationwide lockdown was enforced on March 25, 2020, the unemployment rate has almost doubled and has reached a staggering rate of 21.1% on April 26, as reported by CME. Both urban and rural India has experienced a drastic shift in the rate of employment. So, isn’t it a privilege to have work in these grappling times?
Secondly, home — the place where one lives is also a dream for many in India. Homelessness is one of the most gripping crises that India faces. A testament to the increasing wealth inequality, polarizing the entire existence of the nation into two very different realities that co-exist together. As quoted in the 57th Session of the Commission for Social Development, “homelessness is too often attributed to individual circumstances and moral failures when, in fact, its causes are primarily structural and fundamentally linked to the prevailing ideology of the free market”. Hence, the predominant economic models have enabled disparity in the whole compact of fiscal, social, legal, competition policy, resulting in an insufficient change. The part of the problem mostly in the third world lies in the fact that safety nets are enmeshed in political incentives that inhibit reforms in the program design.
Having a home means that you have a place that allows space for the economic opportunities, emotions that resonate comfort, and resources for a social life. On the other hand, ‘Homelessness’ comes down to survival, thus, negating the right to this imperative personal development. Migrant laborers, most of whom are daily wagers, have been rendered homeless as the states across the country sealed their borders to contain the spread of virulence. With no income to support their livelihood, food, accommodation, and far away from their families, it results in the competition for survival and provides impetus to the debate of the state-citizen relationship. Hasn’t the state failed in providing extensive safety-nets to all?
Thirdly, the ‘from’ that links the work and home in the present times, is the means of the internet. It is safe to say that internet access and availability aren’t very democratic. In February 2020, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) reported that of the 115 crore wireless subscribers in the country, only 66 crores have access to broadband quality internet. Thus, only half the country has access to the quality internet.
As defined by the OECD (2001), Digital Divide — “the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at the different socio-economic levels with regard to their opportunities to access information and communication technologies (ICT) and their use of internet”. In the developing world — gender, region, socio-economic conditions, lingual diversities further filter and determine the access, availability, and usage of the internet in everyday contexts of the individuals. With the absence of the internet, as an enabler to work from home, many already are losing out on this quarantine feature.
Thus, work-from-home translates to a working environment within the comfort of one’s home with an option to stay connected via the internet. As Noam Chomsky quotes — “The more privilege you have, the more opportunities you have”. The reality remains that not all can have it and privilege — it is always for a chosen few.
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Shruti Vinod is currently pursuing M.Sc. in Development Communication and Extension from Delhi University. She has interned and volunteered with various grassroots and internationally recognized organizations including Centre for Civil Society, Save the Children India et-al.
