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10

Social Infrastructure and

Employment CHAPTER

During the last two years, as India along with rest of the world faced the onslaught of
the pandemic, Government’s key focus in India remained on providing a safety-net to the
vulnerable segments of society as well as providing a coherent response to the health
consequences of the pandemic. India having already faced two COVID-19 waves, with
the first peak in September 2020 and the second peak in May 2021, is currently facing the
third wave led by the Omicron variant. Indian National COVID Vaccination Program,
one of the world’s largest vaccination programs, has not only supported production of
COVID-vaccines domestically, but it has also ensured free vaccines to its population -
world’s second largest population. Union Budget for 2021-22 allocated ` 35,000 crore
for procurement of vaccines under COVID-19 Vaccination Program. From 16 January,
th
2021, as on 16 January 2022, a total of 156.76 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines,
th
have been administered: 90.75 crore first dose and 65.58 crore second dose. With these,
93 percent of 18 year and above aged persons have been vaccinated with first dose and
about 70 percent with second dose. Vaccination at this scale and speed has enabled swift
revival of livelihoods.

As per quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data, up to March 2021,
employment in urban sector affected by the pandemic has recovered almost to the pre-
pandemic levels. Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) data suggests, that
not only formalisation of jobs continued during second-COVID-19-wave, but its adverse
impact by far on formalization of jobs was also much lower than during the first-COVID-
wave. To provide the necessary buffer for the unorganized labour in rural areas during
the pandemic, allocation of funds to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has been increased.

As per the latest available data, school infrastructure – both in terms of number of
recognized schools & colleges and basic facilities in schools – and teachers' availability
reflected in Pupil Teacher Ratio, showed an improvement in 2019-20 over earlier years.
Year 2019-20, also witnessed improvement in enrolments rates across upper-primary,
secondary, and higher secondary and improvement in dropout rates at all levels. Gross
enrolment ratio in higher education recorded at 27.1 percent in 2019-20, was slightly
higher from 26.3 percent in 2018-19. Government has undertaken multiple initiatives
aimed at revolutionizing the higher education ecosystem by (i) enabling higher
vocationalisation, (ii) greater multi-disciplinary research, (iii) providing multiple entry