Congress leader Rahul Gandhi interacted over video call with Grameen Bank founder and Nobel Laureate Professor Mohammad Yunus over the issues that have emerged for the economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and both agreed that the informal sector consisting of migrant workers cannot be ignored.
Rahul Gandhi said, "Migrant workers build our cities. They are the foundation upon which our economy runs and we are not doing enough to give them a better life. We cannot go on ignoring the informal sector."
Prof Yunus said in the interaction with the Congress leader, "The financial system is designed in a wrong way. Coronavirus has revealed the weaknesses of society in an ugly way. These are hidden away into society. We get used it. The poor people are there, migrant workers are in the city, hiding in the city. They have been forced to go to their homes due to this crisis."
"So we have to recognise these people. Economics doesn't recognise these people. They call it the informal sector. The informal sector means we have nothing to do with them, They are not part of the economy. The economy begins with the formal sector. We are busy with the formal sector," he added.
Prof Yunus said that the financial system in India and Bangladesh has followed the western way of doing things and has thus ignored the informal sector.
"We followed the Western way of doing things in their financial system, in the economic system. So we didn't think about the vibrant capacity of the people, countries like India, Bangladesh in the region. They have tremendous tenacity to do things and make things happen. Very creative way. That creativity has to be admired and supported. But government stayed away, it's the informal sector, you have nothing to do," he said.
Prof Yunus said: "Why can't we have the economy of the rural area built as a separate parallel economy, autonomous economy. Rather than have an appendix like that today. Technology has given us facilities that never existed before."
He added that the coronavirus crisis has given people a chance to re-look at the economic models.
"Corona has given us a chance to reflect if we go back to the terrible world which is going to destroy itself anyway or we build a new world where there will be no global warming, no wealth concentration, no unemployment," he said.
( With inputs from ANI )