Covid-19 Pandemic And Its Impact On Migrant Workers’ Livelihood: An Observation On India

The worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus associated with an acute respiratory disease called COVID-19 was first reported from Wuhan in China in December 2019. The COVID-19 transmission has spread rapidly attributed to the unprecedented movement of people and the creation of a catastrophic situation. Within a span of time, most the countries came under COVID-19 contamination. It not only affected the health condition but also severely impacted the State’s economy, trade, travel, transport, education, and infrastructure development. In order to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, the Govt of India had used lockdown as a preventive measure. Though the imposition of lockdown has majorly succeeded in containing the virus through various measures such as maintaining social distance and the prohibition of large mass gatherings, at the same time, it has brought a negative impact on the socio-economic livelihoods of migrant workers. Being daily wage workers, their daily paid work with which they solely depended was abruptly stopped during the lockdown period. Due to the lack of income sources and travel restrictions, they faced innumerable difficulties in terms of food insecurity, economic stress, lack of health care, and price rising which direly affected the migrant workers’ basic amenities. This paper is intended to study the impact of COVID-19 on the socio-economic life of the migrant workers and evaluate the proactive role of the Government in mitigating these issues. This study tries to critically examine some of the major steps which the government undertook to tackle the COVID-19 crisis.