Mobility, Translocality and Social Reproduction during COVID-19: Migrant Workers in Narela Industrial Estate, Delhi

Abstract

The reverse migration of workers at the beginning of the first lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic forcefully crystalised underlying issues such as poverty, hunger and the precarious lives of the working class in India’s megacities. With the easing of lockdowns, workers are again on the move. Against this background, this article aims to examine and unpack the reasons that have shaped labour mobility during the ongoing pandemic. It uses the framework of mobility studies and translocality which provide a strong analytical framework to understand linkages between rural and urban areas. In the process, the article highlights the politics associated with the mobility of workers. It draws on a case study of a peripheral industrial region of Delhi known as Narela. After briefly situating the study in the historicity of Narela with respect to the Industrial Relocation Policy of Delhi and resettlement of bastis, it highlights the lived experiences of the working-class population during and after the first lockdown of the pandemic. Based on detailed in-depth telephonic interviews, the article reiterates the crucial relationship between spatially stretched social reproduction and the social embeddedness of workers which suggests that there are a host of factors affecting workers’ mobility.