Mental Health Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Reverse Migrant Workers in Uttarakhand

Abstract

Introduction: The announcement of a nationwide lockdown in India in March 2020 in response to the CoVID-19 pandemic led an exodus of migrant workers back to their homes. The significant adverse impact of this event in its early phase on these reverse migrants has been well documented. With the passage of several months, these reverse migrants eventually reached their homes and re-entered their own communities. This study was conducted amongst a rural community on the interior regions of Almora in hill state of Uttarakhand. Aim: It aims to assess the impact of the later phase of the CoVID-19 pandemic and lockdown on the reverse migrants, and compare this impact with the residents, who have never migrated. Methodology: Door-to-door survey was conducted in the study population, 5-9 months after the lockdown was announced. The participants were matched and grouped into residents and reverse migrants and were evaluated on PHQ-9, GAD-7, IES, and BRIEF-COPE to assess the impact on the participants. Results: No significant depression or anxiety was found in the reverse migrants group, even though the impact of the pandemic and lockdown was felt more by them as compared to the residents group. In addition, there was no significant difference between the two groups for depression or anxiety. Conclusion: These findings can be attributed to factors such as social support from the community members, engagement in work and the use of approach based coping mechanisms.