Interpretive Methods as Policy Tools: The COVID-19 Migration Crisis in India and the Case for Policy Innovation

Abstract

Attempts to quantify and measure migration in India have proved inadequate as far as policy change is concerned. The Census of India 2011 and the National Sample Surveys (particularly the 64th Round conducted between 2007 and 2008), while useful, are too infrequent and temporally limited to offer insights into real-time movements and seasonal migration. On the other hand, even when data is available, it can be difficult to use it to understand future patterns and reactions to policy changes, as the COVID-19 pandemic-induced crisis showed. It was not just the number of migrants residing in major cities that was unanticipated. The government and local authorities also failed to anticipate the impetus for migrant labourers to move back to their hometowns once their revenue streams were cut off. This suggests that the government had not considered the subjective, emotional concerns that migrants had about their well-being, and consequently failed to predict how they would react. This article argues that a paradigm shift towards a deeper, more wide-ranging use of qualitative-interpretive methods is in order if we are to obtain a fuller picture of migrant needs and actions. This qualitative data may then be used in tandem with surveys, enumerations and quantitative studies to predict both the quantum and the direction of migrant movements, actions and reactions. These methods are, therefore, not just supplementary, but critical policy tools in themselves, allowing policymakers to craft interventions and responses that account for the subjective considerations surrounding migrant mobility.