SOCIAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON MIGRANT LABOURERS

BY
AKANKSHA BOHRA

ABSTRACT
Corona Pandemic commonly known as COVID-19 is an unprecedented emergency that has
left the country in adverse situation. In late January 2020, India’s official was acquainted with
the risk of the deadly virus that had its roots from Wuhan, China. The government
implemented the stringent lockdown for the entire nation. Migrant Labourers, the most
vulnerable section of the society, who worked away from their hometown were left in painful
situation. With zero financial or physical support, the labourers were compelled to the leave
the town where they worked and return back to their home for a safe environment. The
immediate closure of all economic activities left the labour class in disguise. The lack of
social safety and infrastructure, the labourers along with their families faced adversarial
situations. The plight of migrant labourers highlighted how the metro cities rely on the cheap
migrant labour from villages, how the class division and agricultural distress is pressurizing
the rural community to shift to urban areas for livelihood and spend their life in inhuman and
pathetic conditions and the response of government and upper section of the society to their
plight. In this paper, the social plight of migrant labourers is discussed along with the
structural problems that this section witnesses. A few anecdotes are discussed in order to
understand the social impact that the pandemic created and left a grave impression on the
minds of the members of the community. Lastly the paper tries to highlight the policies that
could be framed to protect the vulnerable section of migrant labourers socially and remove
the deep rooted structural barriers that restrain them from opportunities for livelihood.

Keywords : Migrant Labourers, COVID-19, Social impact, structural barriers.

INTRODUCTION
Seeing the pictures of people walking barefoot, mothers carrying their babies in scorching
heat, carrying their essentials on their head and children walking along with their parents was
disheartening and pathetic. Here the question arises that the society that takes so much input
from them to create wealth and fulfill their wishes, couldn’t provide with basic subsistence or
livelihood. Had the society been inclusive in nature, the migrant workers along their families
would not have been forced back to their native place in such a despair and distress. (Fr. Paul
Moonjely, 2020).
In the paper the societal impact that has been created on the minds of migrant workers is
discussed which will never fade and will ultimately lead to impending financial and
livelihood crisis. The corona pandemic not only made them loose their source of income but
also shredded
their savings and left them in painful and agony of ambiguity. It is proved by the conditions
that were experienced that whenever a mishap occurs, it is the poor that the first one to get
affected and that to gravely. (Sharma & Paul , 2020 ) The government emphasized on “Social
Distancing” in order to curb the spread but failed to realize that the migrant workers have
always been subjected to different types of social distancing. The migrant works usually
belong to the underprivileged class i.e the Dalits and Adivasis who are anyways victims of
social boycott by the wealthy and powerful sections of the society.

These social stigmas and lack of agrarian wealth forced them to move to urban areas to earn a
living and live with respect and dignity. The social distancing by the wealthy communities
urged them to move to cities to live a life with bright future. The paper tries to highlight that
how the COVID-19 situation is driving them back to their native places, putting them back to
the socially distanced communities and getting them shackled again in the regressive system
again leaving them with no hopes. The need of the hour is to view the plight of migrant
workers from a “Humanitarian lens rather than a utilitarian one”. The essential contribution
that the migrant workers have made for the society, economy and infrastructural
developments should be realized paying them a lot more of attention and respect.(Lal,
COVID-19 and India's Nowhere People, 2020)

WHO ARE MIGRANT LABOURERS IN INDIA ?

(Kumar, 2020) defined Migrant Labourers as a “individual who travel from their states of
residence or so called domicile to other states in the nation looking for employments and a
job.” In the last 30 years, the migration rates have increased significantly as workers along
with their families shift to urban areas in search of better living standard and employment
opportunities. The migran workers usually include daily wage workers and labourers
belonging to unorganized or informal sector.
This vunerable section is a victim of low and irregular salaries, adverse and unfavourable
working conditions, no formal work contract neither provision of any social welfare perks,
excluded from welfare assistance. The migrant workers usually have low educational
qualifications and lack of formal knowledge, they belong to the underprivileged and
marginalized section of the society. Due to lack of formal education, they are usually hired
for manual and lowly jobs by the big production units and other businesses. (Sengupta & Jha,
2020)

SOCIAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON MIGRANT LABOURERS

(Baggio, 2020) Migrants suffer from the double burden of being poor and migrants. They are
victims as well as vulnerable as their economic, political and social rights are hampered and
left unaddressed. The policy of stringent lockdown was a nightmare for the migrant labourers
and their families as they lost their livelihood and were left in disguise overnight.
(Choudhary, 2020) Thousands of families became homeless and lost their only source of
income within hours. The families were afraid and terrified about getting infected, how they
will arrange food for their survival, suffered from loss of income and shelter. Thus, the basic
necessities required for the survival of the men were also lost by the vulnerable section
leaving them in despair and hopelessness.
Due to social structure in India, migration is an easy way of earning a livelihood and have
better living standards for the individual. The urban population consists of about half of the
inter-state migrants. It is a well-recognized fact that migrant workers are the backbone of
Indian Economy (Kumar, 2020). The basic reason behind migration is that when people fail
to find a source of permanent and stable livelihood in their native place, they are attracted to
the pool of opportunities available in urban areas where they could expect higher economic
opportunities. It is high time that the society realises that the Corona Pandemic had affected
the migrant labourers not only financially or infrastructurally but also socially (Poornima &
M.N, 2020). The social stigma has left the migrants in situation where they are facing
discrimination due to their belongingness from socially deprived community. Example, A
migrant family from Bihar returned to their native place where they were deprived from
accessing the ration shops and consume water from the public handpump and were forced by
the members of the villages to utilise the water provided for cattle rearing. (Agarwal, 2020)
The shifting of migrant workers back to their native town thus created tensions and social
turmoil in many states.

I. MIGRANT LABOURERS AND CLASS DEPRIVATIONS

The migrant labourers suffered a harrowing journey as they travelled back to their native
places. With no monetary support and lack of transportation facility, the long journey to their
villages was more painful and distressful. During their journey, they faced frustration and
faced starvation which was more harassing experience. But this was not the end, the migrant
labourers usually belong to the underprivileged and marginalized section and thus faced
social discrimination on returning to their villages. (Standard, 2020 ) They were exposed to a
number of vulnerabilities and felt victimized as they failed to enjoy social inclusiveness and
protection. Around 14.9% migrants experienced harassment from employers, moneylenders,
neighbors in
villages, police and government officials. (Caritas, 2020) revealed in its report how people
were not accepted by the village members and were denied entry even to the public places.
The members denied any kind of support to the migrant labourers and even asked them to
vacate their homes and leave the village. Such behaviour of the community left the migrants
and their in disheartening and devastating situation. According to states that in Patna that
rural migrants returning from Delhi were subject to “social boycott”. The journey from the
cities to their native place was agonizing and distressful but this was not the end as they faced
even more trauma back home where they witnessed social exclusion and zero support from
the community members due to he social stigmas and barriers. (Mahapatra, 2020)
Case Study 1 : The traumatised journey of Wakil Kumar, a 21 year old Dalit youth from
Madhepura, Bihar is horrfying and disheartening. At a young age, he left to Secunderabad to
support his family in earning a livelihood. He worked at a construction site and earned a
decent income. The immediate lockdown shattered all his hopes and gobbled up his only
source os income. After the imposition of the lockdown, he managed to reach his home town
and paid Rs.1800 to a truck that would drop him at Nagpur,Maharastra. By this time, he was
left wih no money and survived at the mercy and generosity of people who delivered food
packets at the highway. From Nagpur, he travelled to Chattisgarh but could not reach patna.
He pleaded and begged many people but all went in vain. He however managed to reached
Patna and from there on walked by foot to his native place Madhepura, which was 300km
from Patna. He talked about how horrfying his entire journey was and is left in despair and
depression. (Caritas, 2020)
Case Study 2 : Manish Kumar, 24, a native of Tevar village,Varanasi said , “caste-based
discrimination restarted the moment he entered the quarantine center in his village, where
upper castes separated themselves from Dalits, a group that’s perceived to be at the bottom
rung of the caste pyramid and includes more than 200 million people nationwide.” He said
that he didn’t receive any benefit under the governement schemes. He also mentioned an
incident where he said that, “When I go to shop, the shopkeeper asks people from my caste to
wait, they first cater to the upper caste people.” (Standard, 2020)

II. WOMEN MIGRANT AND THE MISSING NARRATIVE OF GENDER

The struggles of migrant labourers amidst the COVID-19 pandemic were well discussed but
the narratives of women migrant workers were trivialized. The gender discrimination and the
experiences of the women are different from those of their male counterparts. It is
generalized that women usually migrate due to marital reasons, which completely
overshadows the fact that females after migration immediately engage in jobs in the new city.
Along with the social practice of managing the household chores, the female members are
often piled up with the burden of earning a livelihood to support the husband in managing the
household affairs. (Rajan, Rajagopalan, & Sivakumar, 2020)
COVID-19 also made unequal gender impact and made migrant women lose their jobs
leaving them leaving them financially dependent on their male counterparts. Such a loss of
jobs will lead to the widening of gender gaps again and make the female members financially
and socially vulnerable. (Parida & Madheswaran, 2020 ) The three major categories of
women who are left in despair and vulnerable situation are ; firstly, the women belonging to
lower class or caste who are left by their husband. Working in urban areas, in the village to
look after the family and children. This created burden on the women to take care of the
family in absence of the male member and thus subjected to structural and cultural barriers of
the society. (Rai, 2020) Secondly, the single women whose contribution is often devalued by
the society. A large number of women work outside the domestic boundary and move to
urban areas for employment and economic benefits. These women work as domestic help,
beautician, sales girls, waitresses, work at brick kilns or construction sites. Women from the
far north-eastern states also experienced horrifying incidents where they were harassed
during their journey back home. Thirdly, those women who lived with their spouse and
migrated back with children in their arms in the blistering heat. Some women died during
their travel journey and some gave birth to children on the road and continued walking with
the infant. The unfortunate train incident where 16 migrant labourers who were tired of
walking slept on the railway tracks and were killed by the running over of the train. Such a
incident is disheartening and devastating and gives a picture of the fateful travails of the
migrants.In addition, 80 passengers, including many women, died in Shramik trains. (Parida
& Madheswaran, 2020 )
Thus, the vulnerability of women has increased and will expose them to harmful situations
and lead to increase of exploitation. The women faced double discrimination i.e firstly the
gender biasness and secondly the loss of employment and financial independence. The
unprecedent situation and ambiguity will end up in women facing domestic violence as a
result of alcoholism and depression in unemployed husbands. Sex trade, trafficking,
exploitation, bonded labour and child labour may all be on the rise. Mental health impacts on
women and children can be catastrophic if not addressed properly. Further it was revealed
that the shelter homes and COVID Quarantine centres are not safe for migrant women and
minor girls as they were subjected to sexual assaults and harassments. In Bihar, a migrant
woman was bled to
death in an isolation wards after she was subjected to constant sexual assault by the male
posted in the ward. (Kumar, 2020)

III. AGRARIAN CRISIS AND MIGRANT LABOURERS

The crisis witnessed in the agricultural sector are increasing day by day. There is lack of
ownership of land, lower productivity and water scarcity, financial burden etc. The influx of
migrants back into their home town will create a massive burden on the economies of the
rural areas. The “Reverse Migration” will create a grave impact on the land holdings and
ownership as the unemployed families will now hunt for a source of livelihood. Land is a
crucial asset for the rural people as it is the only way to earn an income. Here a structural
barrier is witnessed as the migrant families who left their native place also left behind their
lands which were accessed by the remaining family members. Now upon the reverse
migration, they may seek a part in the family property and ownership and may lead to
creation of disputes among the family members. (Baggio, 2020)
The migrant labourers belonging to the lower class further witnessed the discrimination
arising from the ancient social hierarchy or caste system. It only determines the societal
interactions but also the economic opportunities available to an individual. In spite of the
modernisation and globalisation, India is still suffering from the shackles of social stigma and
inequality.
Case Study 1 : Banskar, a Dalit youth said that, “I have no land, so had left my village some
12 years ago in search of work and to escape this system where I am considered untouchable,
I have come back to the same situation that I left, in fact it has only become worse. He adds
to this by sharing his experience of how untouchability is still practised in his village and they
are not allowed to touch people from higher caste and are not allowed to own lands rather
work as a land labourer. (Standard, 2020)
The need of the hour is that the continuous social and economic oppression faced by the
disadvantaged and marginalised section must be ended. There should be equitable
distribution of land and the holding should not be limited in the hands of the rich and upper
caste people. The government in such unprecedent situation must open economic and job
opportunities to give a push to the rural infrastructure. There should be openings of rural
markets and small-scale enterprises. The agricultural markets must be promoted to reduce the
dependence on odd and daily wage jobs which usually attracts the migrant labourers. Thus, it
is essential that adequate employment opportunities are rolled out in the rural economy to
cater the needs.

CONCLUSION
Migrant workers for a long time have faced injustice, i.e less pay, long working hours,
exposed to degrading and pathetic living conditions, exclusion from social welfare and
protection and subjected to dangerous and difficult situations. The stories of the different
individuals are disheartening and unacceptable. It was stated in a report by BIAS that, “Even
though they have chosen to return to their villages, they are conscious of the fact that their
standard of living would decline as a result and their children would have diminished
opportunities.”

Indian being a state that focuses on social welfare has an obligation towards all those who are
socially and economic vulnerable. This tragedy of COVID-19 is inexcusable and an
indictment of the society that in spite of being in a position to make difference failed to
provide assistance and inclusiveness to the vulnerable migrant section. It is the duty of the
government to be prepared of such contingency, responsibility of the corporate houses to
provide support to the major contributors of their company, role of private contractors in
assisting their employees rather than abandoning them. All such lacunae on the part of the
societal members highlights the collective failure of the society in fulfilling their obligation.
Thus, the need of the hour is respecting migrants’ dignity, respecting their interests, and
finding ways to ensure adequate wages and access to basic services such as food, housing,
schooling, health, and insurance for workers and their dependents entail empathy and an
understanding of the fundamental human rights concept of equality of access and care.
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