Destinations matter: Social policy and migrant workers in the times of Covid

Rao, Nitya ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6318-0147, Narain, Nivedita, Chakravarty, Shuvajit, Bhanjdeo, Arundhita and Pattanaik, Ayesha (2020) Destinations matter: Social policy and migrant workers in the times of Covid. European Journal of Development Research, 32 (5). 1639–1661. ISSN 0957-8811

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Abstract

The national lockdown of India announced on March 24th 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, left millions of migrant labourers stranded in their destinations. Thrown out of their informal labour arrangements in cities and industrial centres, unable to return to their villages in the absence of transportation, they were stranded for over a month with no income, improper housing and often lack of food. This paper discusses the experiences of men migrating from Chakai block, Jamui district, Bihar, to four Indian states, namely, Kerala, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. We compare their experiences across these four destination states in relation to the social policy response following the national lockdown. Most workers are young men (16-35 years old) and their migration pattern is seasonal and circular. The emerging lessons can provide inputs for social policy measures related to migrant workers in India.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: stranded migrants,social protection,citizenship,india,sdg 1 - no poverty,sdg 11 - sustainable cities and communities ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/no_poverty
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of International Development
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Literacy and Development Group
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Life Course, Migration and Wellbeing
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Health and Disease
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Gender and Development
University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Related URLs:
Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 13 Oct 2020 00:04
Last Modified: 14 Jun 2023 23:55
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/77221
DOI: 10.1057/s41287-020-00326-4

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