The long walk home: India’s migrant labor, livelihood, and lockdown amid COVID-19

ABSTRACT Covid-19-induced curbs on movement and social distancing, imposed by governments around the world brought transportation and the economy to a standstill in many nations. In India, with its billion-plus population, it severely exposed the problems of the poor, especially millions of internal migrant workers working primarily in unorganised sectors as daily wagers (Umanath, 2020) with little or no culture of savings. When the Indian government announced its first lockdown on March 24, 2020 – factories, construction sites, offices, institutions, organisations and the sort immediately suspended all activities indefinitely, nullifying the migrant labour force’s ability to earn a living and pay bills as they were forced indoors. Then began India’s biggest migration since partition (Ellis-Petersen & Chaurasia, 2020), when millions of these migrant workers based in India’s big cities began their march home to distant villages. This manuscript reflects on this sudden reverse labour migration, demystifying the reasons for this exodus .