India S Migrant Workers And The Pandemic

A sudden announcement was made by the government on 24 March 2020 of a complete lockdown of the country, due to the spectre of Coronavirus. India’s Migrant Workers and the Pandemic was being written as the crisis was unfolding with no end in sight. Migrant workers from different parts of India had no choice but to trek back hundreds of kilometres carrying their scanty belongings and dragging their hungry and thirsty children in the scorching heat of the plains of India to reach home. How did caste, race, gender, and other fault lines operate in this governmental strategy to cope with a virus epidemic? The eight papers in this collection, highlight the ethical and political implications of the epidemic—particularly for India’s migrant workers. What were the forces of power at play in this war against the epidemic? What measures could have been taken and need to be taken now? Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a mass exodus of India’s migrant workers from the cities back to the villages. This book explores the social conditions and concerns around health, labour, migration, and gender that were thrown up as a result of this forced migration. The book examines the failings of the public health systems and the state response to address the humanitarian crisis which unfolded in the middle of the pandemic. It highlights how the pandemic-lockdown disproportionately affected marginalised social groups – Dalits and the Adivasi communities, women and Muslim workers. The book reflects on the socio-economic vulnerabilities of migrant workers, their rights to dignity, questions around citizenship, and the need for robust systems of democratic and constitutional accountability. The chapters also critically look at the gendered vulnerabilities of women and non-cis persons in both public and private spaces, the exacerbation of social stratification and prejudices, incidents of intimidation by the administration and the police forces, and proposed labour reforms which might create greater insecurities for migrant workers. This important and timely book will be of great interest to researchers and students of sociology, public policy, development studies, gender studies, labour and economics, and law.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted every domain of life. Migration and human mobility in general are not exceptions. Since March 2020, researchers, policy makers and many others have channelled their efforts to understand this new coronavirus, its impact and prospects. Many scholars were thinking and writing on the pandemic from its onset and many blog essays quickly appeared. One of the earliest peer-reviewed research articles Sirkeci and Yucesahin (2020) is reproduced here. This article and its focus on mobility and travel data showed that it was possible to predict the spatial spread and concentration of COVID-19 cases. Not only was this finding crucial to developing appropriate policies and strategies to counter the spread of the virus, it reminded us that the pandemic is a social disease and not simply a biological threat. The contributions in this book should be considered in this regard tackling the social and policy aspects as we leave the biological and medical side to the experts. | “Covid-19 introduces new uncertainties for everyone. For agriculture, the longer term effects of the pandemic include faster mechanization, more guest workers, and rising imports. Responses are likely to vary by commodity and be shaped by government policies.” – Philip L Martin, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Davis, USA “The COVID-19 pandemic reminds us of just how many people across the world rely on mobility for their livelihood: taxi drivers, delivery workers, street vendors, maintenance technicians of long-distance operation systems, all employees in the hospitality sector… not forgetting the most vulnerable at this time, the homeless, beggars and street kids, especially in the global South, who have to move from place to place to get food, to find a place to sleep through the night, and to run away from police.” – Biao Xiang, Professor of Anthropology, University of Oxford, UK Contents: CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION – Ibrahim Sirkeci and Jeffrey H. Cohen | CHAPTER 2. COVID-19 AND INTERNATIONAL LABOUR MIGRATION IN AGRICULTURE – Philip L. Martin | CHAPTER 3. HOSTAGES OF MOBILITY: TRANSPORT, SECURITIZATION AND STRESS DURING PANDEMIC – Biao Xiang | CHAPTER 4. MODELING AND PREDICTION OF THE 2019 CORONAVIRUS DISEASE SPREADING IN CHINA INCORPORATING HUMAN MIGRATION DATA – Choujun Zhan, Chi Kong Tse, Yuxia Fu, Zhikang Lai, Haijun Zhang | CHAPTER 5. THE STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF MOBILITY TRENDS ON THE STATISTICAL MODELS OF THE COVID-19 VIRUS SPREADING – David Gondauri and Mikheil Batiashvili | CHAPTER 6. HUMAN MOBILITY, COVID-19 AND POLICY RESPONSES: THE RIGHTS AND CLAIMS-MAKING OF MIGRANT DOMESTIC WORKERS – Smriti Rao, Sarah Gammage, Julia Arnold and Elizabeth Anderson | CHAPTER 7. ‘UNWANTED BUT NEEDED’ IN SOUTH AFRICA: POST PANDEMIC IMAGINATIONS ON BLACK IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURS OWNING SPAZA SHOPS – Sadhana Manik | CHAPTER 8. LABOUR MARKET AND MIGRATION OUTCOMES OF THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK IN MEXICO – Carla Pederzini Villarreal and Liliana Meza González | CHAPTER 9. REFLECTIONS ON COLLECTIVE INSECURITY AND VIRTUAL RESISTANCE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 IN MALAYSIA – Linda Alfarero Lumayag, Teresita C. Del Rosario and Frances S. Sutton | CHAPTER 10. FACING A PANDEMIC AWAY FROM HOME: COVID-19 AND THE BRAZILIAN IMMIGRANTS IN PORTUGAL – Patricia Posch and Rosa Cabecinhas | CHAPTER 11. MIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION: UGANDA AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC – Agnes Igoye | CHAPTER 12. IMPACT OF COVID-19 HUMAN MOBILITY RESTRICTIONS ON THE MIGRANT ORIGIN POPULATION IN FINLAND – Natalia Skogberg, Idil Hussein and Anu E Castaneda | CHAPTER 13. REMITTANCES FROM MEXICAN MIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES DURING COVID-19 – Rodolfo García Zamora and Selene Gaspar Olvera | CHAPTER 14. THE COVID-19, MIGRATION AND LIVELIHOOD IN INDIA: CHALLENGES AND POLICY ISSUES – R.B. Bhagat, Reshmi R.S., Harihar Sahoo, Archana K. Roy, Dipti Govil | CHAPTER 15. THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY IN A POST PANDEMIC WORLD: FORCED MIGRATION AND HEALTH – Monette Zard and Ling San Lau | CHAPTER 16. MULTILATERALISM FOR MOBILITY: INTERAGENCY COOPERATION IN A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD – Daniel Naujoks | CHAPTER 17. COVID-19, REMITTANCES AND REPERCUSSIONS – Melissa Siegel

This open access book discusses the socio-political context of the COVID-19 crisis and questions the management of the pandemic emergency with special reference to how this affected the governance of migration and asylum. The book offers critical insights on the impact of the pandemic on migrant workers in different world regions including North America, Europe and Asia. The book addresses several categories of migrants including medical staff, farm labourers, construction workers, care and domestic workers and international students. It looks at border closures for non-citizens, disruption for temporary migrants as well as at special arrangements made for essential (migrant) workers such as doctors or nurses as well as farmworkers, ‘shipped’ to destination with special flights to make sure emergency wards are staffed, and harvests are picked up and the food processing chain continues to function. The book illustrates how the pandemic forces us to rethink notions like membership, citizenship, belonging, but also solidarity, human rights, community, essential services or ‘essential’ workers alongside an intersectional perspective including ethnicity, gender and race.

A little bit of India too moves with every migrant. From adventure to indenture, martyrs to merchants, Partition to plantation, from Kashmir to Kerala, Japan to Jamaica and beyond, India Moving is the first book to map out the great migrations that have made the country and the world a more diverse place to live in. To understand how millions of people have moved-from and to India-the book embarks on a journey laced with evidence, argument and wit, providing insights into topics like the slave trade and the migrations of workers, travelling business communities such as the Marwaris, Gujaratis and Chettiars, refugee crises like the Partition, and the roots of contemporary mass migration from Bihar and Kerala, covering a terrain that often includes seemingly unrelated topics like mangoes, dosas and pressure cookers. India Moving shows the scale and variety of Indian migrations and argues that greater mobility is a prerequisite for maintaining the country's pluralistic traditions.

It's totally unjust - Human life has no value in our country

1) This is a comprehensive book on the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the Indian economy. 2) It discusses various socio-economic issues related to economic policies, labour, environment, and education. 3) Timely, and written by experts, this book will be of interest to departments of South Asian studies and political economy across UK.