According to a Yale University survey that tracked 5,000 migrants across north and central India from April 2020 to February 2021, migrant workers who returned to cities for work after the first Covid lockdown earned roughly five times as much as those who stayed back
The study, reviewed by The Indian Express, said that only 45 per cent of female migrants returned to their urban workplaces and 40 per cent of them earned no income across a week in which they were tracked in February 2021. In comparison, 55 per cent of men returned to their workplaces and only a quarter of them had no income.
In an exact repetition of events, last week thousands of migrant workers gathered at Delhi’s Anand Vihar ISBT to catch a bus home, hours after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a week-long lockdown and appealed to them with folded hands not to leave the city.
Police officials said over 5,000 people gathered at Anand Vihar including at ISBT as well as the railway station and the numbers were rising.
During the nationwide lockdown last year, a large number of migrant workers from Bihar, UP and other states living in Delhi had moved to their home states, through whatever means available and often on foot.
Similarly, in Mumbai, migrant workers left the city for their hometowns after a second lockdown was announced.
Typically employed informally, India’s 100 million migrant workers live hand-to-mouth and are dependent on daily cash payments. They do not receive any compensation if they are off work due to sickness – even in the event of a global pandemic.
During India’s sudden nationwide two-month lockdown last year, which ended on June 1, approximately 400 million Indians were pushed further into poverty as they were unable to work – street stalls were shut, factories closed their doors and work paused on construction sites.
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