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 provide inputs for social policy measures related to migrant workers in India.
Highlights
Almost a fourth of India’s population, over 300 million, are migrants settled for various durations in different parts of the country
A majority of these migrant workers belong to the poorer states of eastern India—Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal—and move to the better-off western and southern states (Ibid.)
Whose entitlements are seen as legitimate? Drawing on Fraser’s (1989) articulation of the three moments in the ‘politics of needs satisfaction’, we explore how depoliticised and invisible migrant voices emerged as a legitimate ‘public’ during the lockdown
Summary
Almost a fourth of India’s population, over 300 million, are migrants settled for various durations in different parts of the country. Migrant workers are aware of the limited state regulation protecting their rights as well as their weak bargaining position, exacerbated by poverty and lack of competitiveness in the labour market, which relegates them to ‘unskilled’ jobs involving manual work. They develop alternative strategies for social support through home-based affiliations, operating in groups that migrate together to the same destination or work in similar settings. Their voice as a legitimate constituency has been largely absent from the public policy space
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
