The Impact of Covid-19 on Migrant Workers in India

This paper discusses issues regarding the effect of COVID-19 on the migrant workers. These impacts were most troubling for low-income households, which are less well positioned to cope with earnings losses during a recession, have no alternative earnings and have no social security available. The first image of COVID-19 that India associates with are not ventilators or medical professionals in ICUs but of migrant laborers trudging back to their villages hundreds of miles away, lugging their belongings. Millions of migrant workers were left unemployed in India due to the lockdown and subsequent fear of recession. Many of the migrant workers had returned to their villages, and many more were just waiting for the lockdown to be lifted. On the one hand, lockdowns and social distancing measures were drying up jobs and incomes, whereas they were likely to disrupt agricultural production, transportation systems, and supply chains on the other. This posed a challenge of ensuring food security and controlling already rampant malnutrition, particularly among children, which was likely to result in increased infant and child mortality. There is a need to relook at the national migration policies, which should accommodate the assistance and protection of migrants arriving from, or faced with the prospect of returning to, areas affected by health crises. Also, there is a need to establish resilient food systems that could reduce food insecurity and the pressure to return to origin among migrants. This paper explores and lists the changes needed and makes recommendations for the same. Even as the pandemic continues to rage, we have to put safety nets to meet the wave!