Invisible Frontlines: Socio-Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Unorganized Service Sector Workers in Kalyana Karnataka – A Social Work Perspective

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic gravely affected India's informal service sector, which accounts for a considerable proportion of the country's workforce. The impact was especially severe in traditionally marginalized areas such as Kalyana Karnataka owing to existing socio-economic vulnerabilities. This research is centered on unorganized service sector employees—like auto-rickshaw drivers, barbers, street vendors, tailors, and domestic workers—who saw precipitous drops in work, earnings, and overall well-being during the pandemic. Applying the mixed-methods research design, the current study utilizes primary data obtained from 151 respondents via structured surveys and semi-structured interviews across four urban municipalities of Kalyana Karnataka region. The findings indicate more than 60% of the respondents indicating full loss of income, with a majority of them depending on informal debt with high interest rates to cover essential expenditures. The psychosocial effect was big, with employees feeling increased emotional distress, strained interpersonal relationships, and deteriorating physical health because of long-term economic insecurity. Although government and non-governmental interventions were put in place during the crisis, they were limited by low awareness, digital exclusion, and administrative constraints. Examining the crisis through a social work perspective rooted in rights-based and resilience frameworks, the study highlights the structural and systemic fault lines that left informal workers vulnerable. It calls for localized, inclusive, and worker-centric policy interventions, as well as the embedding of social work practices within municipal welfare administration. The results call for long-term responses that facilitate economic recuperation as well as psychosocial resilience in India's most vulnerable labour forces.