Food and communities in post-COVID-19 cities: Case of India

Abstract

While Covid-19 pandemic has affected countries across the world, the burden has been shared disproportionately by urban poor from the cities in Global South. In much of Global South, while cities have emerged as growth centers, they are mostly driven by informalities, belying the image of cities, visualized in the mainstream development economics literature as a place of secured formal jobs that free one from the drudgery of rural life. Covid-19 pandemic has exposed these fault-lines in the cities. India serves as a typical case of such urban-centric growth, with informal workers, predominated by disadvantaged social and religious categories, accounting for 81% of workers in urban space. In cities, migrant in general and seasonal migrants increasingly account for bulk of informal workforce. The lockdown imposed in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic left the community of households reliant on informal works for livelihoods, without any rights and entitlements, which affect their access to food. The review of evidence collected in both primary surveys and macro level data points towards sluggishness in recovery of jobs, which coupled with high food inflation, suggests that access to food continues to be an issue in urban governance. The paper calls for a roadmap entailing both short-term and long-term measures to build sustainable urban livelihoods for ensuring food secure urban space in India.