PSYCHO-SOCIAL AND HEALTH RELATED ISSUES FACED BY LABOR MIGRANTS IN KERALA DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The life of migrant workers in a host state has been a serious issue all the time. This paper tries to identify different psycho-social and health related issues faced by labour migrants in Kerala and how does these issues become vulnerable during pandemic. For this, the researcher’s learnings from empirics have been well utilized to evolve the concept and arrive at conclusion. Self-observation of the various psychosocial and health related issues faced by migrant workers in pandemic period supported by document analysis from data derived from articles, journals and news reports has been used for a comprehensive analysis. The most significant findings are the psycho-social issues, which include a high level of anxiety, tension, and dread as a result of disease-related worries. But to certain extent Kerala was the only one Indian state which could provide maximum support for migrant workers to overcome the effect of Covid- 19. But there are negative impacts reflected while implementing the supportive measures to these interstate migrants because of the lack of national level inclusion. A reflective learning from this analysis is that a comprehensive legislative framework is required to accommodate the diverse health and welfare demands of interstate migrant workers.