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The COVID-19 Pandemic and Human Dignity: the Case of Migrant Labourers in India

• Published: 13 July 2021
• Volume 6 , pages 225–236, ( 2021 )

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• Anoop C. Choolayil   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2561-2970 1 &
• Laxmi Putran 1  

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Being one of the badly affected nations by the novel coronavirus, the Indian government had rolled out a set of strategies to contain the transmission. While measures like the lockdown inflicted significant damage on many sections of society, the interstate migrant labourers’ plight across India was nothing less than disastrous. While the privileged sections of the society could afford the strict restrictions laid down by the state, the migrant labourers stuck in different parts of the country found themselves to be second class citizens. This research is an ethical discourse on the human dignity of migrant labourers in a welfare state during the pandemic context. Data gathered from reports on the subject matter in media licensed by the state were analysed under the theoretical lens of violation of human dignity . The outcome of the research involves a critical appraisal of the human dignity of the marginalised in a so-called modern welfare state.

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Background of the Study

COVID-19 has been one of the most deadly pandemics in the era of modern virology. The absence of pathogen-specific treatment has made the world rely on preventive strategies, paired with symptomatic treatment for containing the virus. The pandemic has disrupted the global economy and has adversely affected social lives to a great extent. The impact of the pandemic on the social and economic systems has made it a matter of national priority for the world's nations. Hence, governance has become a key element in the management of the pandemic situation. The quick transmission rate and the potential damage of the virus made the world's nations roll out preventive measures like lockdown of public spaces and travel bans. The battle against COVID-19, hence, is not just a battle between modern medicine and a pathogen; rather, a fight between the state and the pathogen. The implications of this ‘state versus pathogen’ scenario on the lives of the common people involve a debate on the ‘ethics of the state-initiated measures’. While the state necessarily makes decisions on the premise of the ‘welfare of the citizens’, its universality is a matter of concern. Citizens of a nation fall under multiple categories that may be overlapping implying intersectionality. For instance, one can be a citizen of India, be poor and be a migrant labourer, all at the same time. The measures taken by the state in the purview of the welfare of the citizens need not always address the disadvantaged citizens.

The government of India, also known as the Indian Union, announced a nationwide lockdown on 24 March 2020, imposing travel bans and restrictions on gathering in public spaces to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. However, the state-formulated strategy of ‘lockdown’ did not take into account many of the disadvantaged citizens, migrant labourers being one of the most affected groups. Migrant labourers contribute to the economic development of India; especially to infrastructure development. Major cities across India rely on migrant labourers for infrastructure-related labour and other unskilled jobs, often involving exploitation of these people. The pandemic control measures left migrant labourers across India without any work and income. To aggravate the situation, the migrants could not travel back to their hometowns due to the travel ban. This article critically appraises how migrant labourers were affected by the COVID-19 containment measures of the state and the response of the state to the same. The enquiry relies on reports from state-licensed media houses on the subject matter. The research involves an ethical discourse on ‘human dignity in a welfare state’ followed by a critical analysis of content generated by media on the ‘state of migrant labourers’ during the pandemic.

Human Dignity and Human Rights in a Welfare State: an Analysis of the Indian Context

The concept of human dignity as it stands today has evolved mainly from the ‘Kantian deontology’. According to the deontological ethical position, human beings are ‘ends in themselves’ and hence have a moral dimension to them, making them possess inherent dignity. The assumption is strictly in contradiction to the idea that dignity is associated with utility. Instead, the idea is that humanity in itself has dignity (Sensen, 2016 ). Modern-day societies have developed the concept of human dignity in and around the Kantian deontological position. The international mandates reiterate that human dignity is a characteristic common to all human beings equally (Kotzmann & Seery, 2017 ).

Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( 1948 ) postulates that ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’. Human dignity, thus, is a fundamental assumption in the modern-day human rights concept. A person could be stripped off from his/her state of dignity mainly in four ways viz. humiliation, instrumentalisation, degradation and dehumanisation (Kaufmann et al., 2011 ). The state is the social institution deemed to protect human dignity. Article 22 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( 1948 ) calls upon the member states to ensure social security along with economic, social and cultural rights in order to ensure human dignity. It is from the concept of human dignity that human rights originate. Thus, the concept of human dignity is an underlying principle of a welfare state. By virtue of its responsibility to protect human dignity, every welfare state should ensure that unemployment or disability does not deprive people of the means of existence, human rights of every citizen are intact, a functioning, productive and sustainable economy is in place, assistance is provided to people who cannot help themselves and existential risks including fear are eliminated (Steigleder, 2014 ). Welfare states respond to the demand for human dignity by establishing ‘fundamental rights’ in accordance with their resources as called upon by Article 22 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Indian Union is a welfare state and has human dignity as one of the cornerstones of its constitution. The idea of governance in India is guided by the notion of a welfare state as enshrined in Article 38 of the Indian constitution that seeks to establish a just social order in social, economic and political terms in the welfare state (Bakshi & Kashyap, 1982 ). The social order in the welfare state resonates with the idea of social justice, which is rights-centred, aiming at improving the lives of all the citizens, especially the marginalised. The fundamental rights function as the ground for ensuring social justice. The fundamental rights in the Indian constitution aim at the protection of the human dignity of its citizens. The constitution guarantees its citizens’ dignity through the seven fundamental rights viz. the right to equality, right to freedom, right against exploitation, right to freedom of religion, cultural and educational rights, right to property and right to constitutional remedies (Austin, 1999 ).

The implementation of the idea of a welfare state in India is determined mainly by the quasi-federal nature state. The Directive Principles of State Policy in the Indian Constitution, where the Constitution calls for the pursuit of a welfare state, are instrumental in the governance but not justiciable. These principles guide the law-making process in the state. However, law-making in India is largely shaped by the quasi-federal governance system. Governmental powers are divided among the central and state governments through the system of three lists viz. the union list, the state list and the concurrent list, the first two being exclusive to the central and state governments, respectively, and the third one shared among the two (Bakshi & Kashyap, 1982 ). Welfare of labourers is an item in the concurrent list and hence the central and provincial governments are equally responsible for the same.

A welfare state that is guided by the idea of social justice ensures the implementation of constitutional provisions through legislation. In order to ensure the constitutional rights of the interstate migrant labourers, The Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act ( 1979 ) was introduced by the central government. The act mandates welfare provisions for interstate migrant labourers like equal wages, displacement allowance, governmental supervision of working conditions and legal assistance. From a theoretical point of view, the act resonates with the commitment of the state towards the welfare of migrant labourers and it has significantly contributed to the betterment of their employment prospects. On the other hand, the discrimination of migrant labourers has not significantly reduced in many parts of the country. It ranges from economic (Ashok & Thomas, 2014a ,  b ; Kapoor, 1987 ; Reddy & Olsen, 2012 ; Srivastava, 2019 ) to social (Banerjee & Knight, 1985 ; Ito, 2009 ).

Migrant Labourers in India: an Overview

With an increasing divide between the poor and the rich in the progressively liberal economy in India, the poor and the marginalised are forced to migrate to urban areas in search of jobs. The movement of the people from the villages to urban locations is not just the outcome of poverty but that of the intersectionality of poverty and casteism, among many other factors. The migration of unskilled labourers in India can be both intra-state and inter-state. According to the 2011 census, there are 307 million people in India who had migrated from their place of birth out of which 41 million (13%) were interstate migrants. Among these 307 million migrants, 140 million move in search of work. The migrants who move from one state to another state could be either skilled or unskilled. Migrant labourers are often employed in the informal segment that requires unskilled or semi-skilled works, typically involving high-risk, low-income jobs (DDU-GKY Ministry of Rural Development, 2018 ). There are at least 100 million low waged migrant labourers in the workforce of the Indian economy (Shah & Lerche, 2020 ). The unskilled migrant labourers constitute a group that is often discriminated against and marginalised. Among these unskilled migrant labourers, 56 million comprise interstate migrant labourers (Census, 2011 ), the majority of whom work in the unorganised sector for daily livelihood. In many cases, these workers would not possess even a valid identity card given the nature of their work (Varma, 2020 ).

Interstate Migrant Labourers and Intersectionality

The idea of intersectionality involves how different discriminations are interlinked and affect each other. It investigates how power relations can influence social relations and personal experiences. Intersectionality is a framework that examines social and political life as a product of multiple factors. An intersectional view of social inequality would suggest the intertwining nature of social divisions contributing to the situation (Collins & Bilge, 2016 ). An intersectional worldview of the interstate migrant worker population in the unorganised sector would throw light to multiple axes that contribute to each other. Caste, class, ethnicity and many other aspects contribute to the plight of the migrant labour population, both in the native states and the host states.

Poverty is one of the root factors contributing to interstate migration in India. Poor people, mostly hailing from rural areas across India, migrate to states with better HDI and economic prosperity in search of a fortune. The poverty of these people, however, is not an independent phenomenon. Interstate migrant labourers in India constitute a group that faces multiple overlapping disadvantages. The people who are considered the lowest in the caste hierarchy are found to be engaging in the hardest work under poor conditions as migrant labourers. These labourers hail from the states with the lowest human development indices that are notorious for the wealth extraction by upper castes leaving the lower caste people with almost no wealth (Shah & Lerche, 2020 ).

The intersectional nature of interstate labour migration in India is evident from how the caste system induces poverty which in turn leads to migration to other states. Lower caste people are often assigned to low-paid dead-end jobs and are subject to discrimination at the workplace (Banerjee & Knight, 1985 ; Das & Dutta, 2007 ; Madheswaran & Attewell, 2007 ). Interestingly, the plight does not end in the native states. The migrant labourers often enter the labour market through brokerage systems. The labour brokers in the host states often exploit the labourers by employing them for lower wages (Picherit, 2019 ). The people who experience discrimination at the levels of class and caste in their hometowns when migrated to a new state experiences even more discrimination based on language and ethnicity. In addition to the poverty and caste-related discriminations in the native state, the migrant labourers experience discrimination from the people of the ‘receiving states’ in ethnicity and linguistic terms, among others. This double burden of discrimination in the native state and the ‘receiving state’ is a severe dignity violation. The alienation from homeland and relatives paired with poverty and discrimination makes the interstate migrant labourers one of the most vulnerable sections of the population. It is hence evident that interstate migrant labourers constitute a marginalised section of the society and undergo multiple level discriminations in a so-called welfare state.

The Downside of Being an Interstate Migrant Labourer in India

The discrimination that the migrant labourers undergo worsens their socio-economic conditions. The problems of a migrant labourer begin with housing and extend to risk to life. Migrant labourers live under unhygienic, packed housing infrastructures to minimise the cost of living. In an effort to cut the cost of living in the ‘receiving state’ migrant labourers often end up living in unsanitary conditions, following a poor diet, compromising on personal hygiene and thus putting themselves in hazardous living conditions (Ashok & Thomas, 2014a , b ; De Haan, 1997 ; Zabeer et al., 2019 ). Besides the difficulties in living arrangements, migrant labourers are exposed to dangerous work conditions. Interstate migrant labourers are often employed in hazardous work environments like construction sites that pose the risk of accidents, falls, and machinery-induced injuries (Jane, 2016 ). Also, interstate migrant labourers are exploited with meagre pay and extended working hours (Agarwal & Raj, 2020 ). Often, migrant labourers have no role in decision-making regarding the work domains. Contractors from the ‘receiving state’ own the decision-making process. This is because migrant labourers are unfamiliar with the socio-cultural fabric of the ‘receiving state’ and also since they are recruited through private firms and individuals due to the absence of a state-imposed system.

Life as a migrant labourer in India involves one that of discrimination and exploitation. Besides the discrimination in the native place based on class and caste, they often undergo discrimination and exploitation in the ‘receiving state’. This state of life as a discriminated and exploited human person raises the question of human dignity. The migrant labourers are entitled to be citizens with dignity, as per the international conventions and the Indian constitution but often are deprived of this dignity they deserve. The pandemic situation furthered this crisis, and the violation of human dignity of migrant labourers in the welfare state of India is discussed in the following section.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Interstate Migrant Labourers

The COVID-19 pandemic induced an unprecedented difficult situation, and the population, in general, experienced hardships on economic, social and psychological fronts. The interstate migrant labourers, as a vulnerable group, faced unprecedented hardships on multiple fronts, including material, psycho-social and socio-political.

Material Impact

The most basic effect of the pandemic on the migrant labourers was on the economic front. The pandemic struck the labour market, and unskilled labourers with no proper job security soon found themselves to be jobless and consequently devoid of economic resources to survive. The pandemic control measures like the lockdown made the migrant labourers lose their already uncertain employment prospects (Guha et al., 2020 ; Khanna, 2020 ). The pandemic not only induced a no-income situation for the migrant labourers in India but had an impact even on the basic needs (Singh, 2020 ). The pandemic induced economic uncertainty, in turn, paved the way for psycho-social distress among migrant labourers.

Psycho-social Impact

The migrant labourers were distressed by the uncertainty of the duration of the lockdown, inability to travel and meet their families, fear of abandonment by the employers, insecure job prospects, etc. (Chander et al., 2020 ; Kumar et al., 2020 ). This, paired with the fear of social exclusion, aggravated the distress of migrant labourers. Social exclusion adversely affected the mental health of migrant labourers as they are vulnerable to loss of social status and discrimination. The state-promulgated measures like mandatory isolations and quarantine took a toll on the mental health of the migrant labourers (Choudhari, 2020 ).

The Socio-political Dimension of the Pandemic Induced Hardships of Migrant Labourers

The hardships faced by the migrant labourers during the pandemic shows how the social system precariously contributed to the plight of the migrant labourers. The state mechanisms’ inability to ensure the welfare of migrant labourers as a group during an adverse event showed the shallow nature of the social security measures on offer for the migrant labourers. Labour is a subject in the concurrent list of the Indian constitution, which implies that the state and the central governments are equally responsible for initiating welfare measures in this regard. However, the absence of a direct grievance redressal mechanism for migrant labourers explains the inefficacy of the state mechanism in this regard. The suo moto interference of the Supreme Court of India, on cognisance of the violation of fundamental rights of migrant labourers and directing the state to address the immediate needs of the migrant labourers strengthen the argument that the state had not been addressing the scenario in an efficient and desirable manner (Chander et al., 2020 ; Rajagopal, 2020 ).

While the policies and legislation in black and white revolve around the idea of ensuring the welfare of migrant labourers, the practical situation is far from ideal. It is disappointing that the system that exploits the migrant labourers for economic development does not pay them the worth they deserve as human beings. There is a constant interplay of state and societal factors in the plight of the migrant labourers which was brought to light vividly during the pandemic. While some of the actions of the state had been least considerate to the migrant labourers, contributing to their plight (BBC, 2020 ; Aljazeera, 2020 ; Gupta et al., 2020 ; Pandey, 2020 ; Chaturvedi, 2020 ; First Post, 2020 ; Babu & Sahay, 2020 ; Kulkarni, 2020 ), it was the state’s inefficacy in handling the situation and inaction that lead to mounting difficulty for them in some instances (Lalwani, 2020 ; Ameen, 2020 ; The Wire, 2020 ; The Federal, 2020 ; News 18, 2020 ; Kulkarni, 2020 ). Societal attitudes had also been adding to the plight of migrant labourers through negative outlooks and unfavourable responses (The New Indian Express, 2020 ; Tomlinson & Chaurasia, 2020 ).

The interplay of state and societal factors made migrant labourers undergo severe violations of human dignity during the pandemic. While it could be argued that migrant labourers undergoing violations of human dignity are individual cases lacking a collective nature, it could be seen that individual cases incur a collective aspect to this case. The Central Government of India’s official statement in Parliament that it has no data at all on the death and job loss of migrant labourers during the pandemic (Nath, 2020 ) asserts the fact that the instances of violation of human dignity of migrant labourers were not isolated events, but the outcome of a complacent system and complimentary society that pays no serious attention to the cause of the migrant labourers. The seemingly isolated cases of the violations of human dignity occurring in the background of this underwhelming administrative system, collectively contributed to the general state of ‘violation of human dignity’ faced by the migrant labourers during the pandemic. The article discusses the pandemic-induced violations of the dignity of the interstate migration population in India through an analysis of state-licensed media reports.

Method and Materials

This study is a qualitative enquiry on the case of violation of the dignity of unskilled interstate migrant labourers in India during the pandemic. The case has been researched from the vantage point of ‘human dignity’ (Sensen, 2016 ) within the theoretical framework of ‘violation of human dignity’ (Kaufmann et al., 2011 ). The research employs a narrative method, constructing a narration on the status of the dignity of migrant labourers during the pandemic through events reported in state-licensed media. The data for the study had been gathered from media reports in the period from March 24 (the day of announcement of lockdown in India) to May 24, 2020 as interstate migrant labourers were either stranded in host states or struggling their way back to the home states during this period. The cases of violations of the dignity of the migrant labourers during this period in India were located using a web search with the combinations of the keywords ‘migrants’, ‘migrant labourers’, ‘pandemic’, ‘human dignity’, ‘human rights’, ‘discrimination’ and ‘India’. The results pertaining to unskilled interstate migrant labourers that were media reports from state-licensed media houses were evaluated within the framework of ‘violations of human dignity’, and the relevant results were enlisted for further analysis (Table 1 ). At this stage, reports by non-licensed media houses were eliminated and hundred percent inter-coder agreement was reached regarding the enumeration of the dignity-violation in the report. It was also made sure that only the reports enumerating factual events were selected and those which were opinions or statements were eliminated, to ensure objectivity. The selected reports fell under three major categories viz.

Violations due to perpetuation by state/state mechanism: Reports in this category include events where a state government or its machinery, mainly bureaucracy, committed an action that violated the dignity of the migrant labourers.

Violations due to the inefficacy of state/state mechanism: Reports in this category include cases where the dignity of migrant labourers was compromised due to the inefficiency of the state, mostly inability to initiate necessary actions to avoid adverse actions.

Violations due to perceptions of the society: Reports in this category include actions or perceptions of people in general that has contributed to the violation of the dignity of migrant labourers.

The three categories of reports were analysed within the framework of violations of human dignity to narrate the case of human dignity of migrant labourers during the pandemic in India. A total of 25 reports were enlisted and the selected reports were analysed thematically in the framework of violation of human dignity involving humiliation, degradation, instrumentalisation and dehumanisation (Kaufmann et al., 2011 ). The cases presented in the reports were often mutually inclusive, i.e. one form of violation included elements of another form of violation. In such cases, the reports were considered under the forms of violations to which it largely resonated. The thematically coded findings from the reports are presented in the following sections.

The Humiliation of Unskilled Interstate Migrant Labourers During the Pandemic

Humiliation involves any infliction of insult on pride as an individual or a group. It involves an emotional experience following a forced or conscious degradation of the social status (Burton, 2014 ). Humiliation is an objective reality as well as a subjective experience to the victim. Violation of human dignity through humiliation can be inflicted upon an individual or on a group (Kaufmann, et al., 2011 ). Kaufmann ( 2011 ) suggests that a group could be humiliated in three ways viz. ‘direct group humiliation’, ‘symbolic humiliation’ and ‘representative group humiliation’. In the Indian context, the constitution and legislations ensure that minimal direct and symbolic humiliations take place. However, ‘representative humiliation’ involves humiliating an individual or some individuals in a group which consequently incurs a humiliation on the whole group. This was present during the pandemic in the case of the migrant labourers.

The Indian state declared a lockdown on 24 March 2020 which lead to job loss and subsequent loss of livelihood leaving the migrant labourers stranded in host states. The travel ban enacted with the lockdown forced many poverty-stricken migrant labourers to travel on foot to reach home states (Pandey, 2020 ). After an excruciating trek across states to reach the home town, the migrant labourers faced a humiliating situation . The bureaucrats in the administrative system of some states considered the interstate migrant labourers as potential virus carriers and the method employed by the officials in the state of Uttar Pradesh was humiliating and violated the human dignity of the migrant labourers as a group . The officials instead of employing any scientific measures sprayed chemical solutions on the migrant labourers (BBC, 2020 ; Aljazeera, 2020 ; Gupta et al., 2020 ). This method was deemed unscientific by the World Health Organisation (Fox, 2020 ). While none of the expatriated citizens residing overseas had to undergo this unscientific procedure, migrant labourers had to undergo this humiliation indicating a clear-cut case of discrimination and violation of human dignity. While this could be considered as an administrative mistake than the state policy, this random act of ‘representative humiliation’ portrayed a picture of migrant labourers as unclean pathogen carriers.

The migrant labourers found themselves as the modern-day untouchables during the pandemic. During their excruciating trek across states to reach their native states, they were ‘social-distanced’ by those in the privileged classes to avoid potential transmission. The situation was not any different in their hometowns as there were reports regarding how villagers blocked the migrant labourers from entering their own homes in states like West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand (The New Indian Express, 2020 ; Tomlinson & Chaurasia, 2020 ). The system of social distancing unintentionally paved the way for the strengthening of the class divide. The privileged and the elite class could afford the so-called social distancing while migrant labourers and other poor sections of the society found themselves in a disadvantaged position (Chowdhury, 2020 ; Wankhede, 2020 ). In some cases, the intersectionality of caste and migrant status were clearcut, as there were instances of Dalit migrant labourers losing jobs and being accused of spreading the virus even by the state mechanisms, as in the case of Uttar Pradesh (Agoramoorthy & Hsu, 2021 ; Ganguly, 2020 ).

The ‘representative humiliation’ during the pandemic involves a special characteristic in terms of perpetuation. The perpetuation was not the outcome of a deliberate and organised effort but a confluence of intersectional elements. The prejudices and stigmas associated with the group paved the way to the humiliation of migrant labourers during the pandemic; both from the administrative and societal ends. The migrant labourers being citizens and human beings with equal dignity as the other sections of the society, underwent humiliation and hence their dignity as a group had been violated.

Degradation of Unskilled Interstate Migrant Labourers During the Pandemic

Degradation is an encroachment upon a person’s autonomy and infliction of violence on one’s emotional experience. Degradation usually involves a person to act against his/her will and is characterised by a lack of respect for his/her personality (Webster, 2011 ). Degradation is a common form of violation of dignity in the day-to-day lives of migrant labourers, often manifested in forms of poor independence in decision-making, poor living arrangements offered by contractors, etc. The pandemic precipitated a situation that has escalated the violation of human dignity of migrant labourers in the form of degradation. One of the striking aspects of the degradation during pandemic involves the degradation of migrant labourers as a group. There were reports on how they were restricted from making choices of their own, including travel and living arrangements during the pandemic.

There had been many instances of degradation of migrant labourers as a group. The first among them being the travel arrangements for interstate migrant labourers. Though the state-arranged ‘Shramik trains’ for migrant labourers, the number of trains were short of the demand, forcing thousands of migrant labourers to travel on feet to their hometowns (India Today, 2020 ). The migrant labourers found themselves degraded or as second class citizens as the government had no systematic plan in effect for their repatriation and rehabilitation. While the citizens working overseas were systematically repatriated by the state, the migrant labourers from within the Indian Union received less attention. The few trains arranged by the government to repatriate the migrant labourers were running late and short of food and water in many cases; though Indian railways claim otherwise (Lalwani, 2020 ; Ameen, 2020 ; The Wire, 2020 ; The Federal, 2020 ; News 18, 2020 ). These incidents point to a degradation of migrant labourers as a group.

While the migrant labourers were walking their way back to their villages, among other constraints they faced was a systematised degradation from the law and order maintenance machinery of the states. Reports suggest that migrant labourers were made to stay out of the city roads and even had to bribe to travel on foot (Pandey, 2020 ). It shows how the state machinery, especially the law and order machinery, that should ensure the dignity of the migrant labourers miserably failed in their duty in at least a few instances. Also, the migrant labourers paid exorbitant fees to travel in packed buses with little to no preventive measures in place (Outlook, 2020 ).

Instrumentalisation of Unskilled Interstate Migrant Labourers During the Pandemic

Instrumentalisation involves using people as means to achieve ends, i.e. to treat people as objects to gain something (Kaufmann, 2011 ). While instrumentalisation is a common form of violation of human dignity against migrant labourers in the free market economies, the pandemic situation paved for even more instrumentalisation. Political and organisational entities took advantage of the plight of the migrant labourers during the pandemic.

The lack of a uniform state-run system to facilitate the transportation of migrant labourers led to political bargains in many states of India. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, for instance, an opposition party offered free buses for transporting migrant labourers to their hometowns. The offer was denied by the state government citing alleged forging of vehicle documents (Chaturvedi, 2020 ; First Post, 2020 ). The incident shows how the plight of migrant labourers was put to use by political parties to attain their goal of increased Public Relations Rating. A similar incident was reported in the state of Kerala where one of the opposition parties offered to bear the travelling cost of migrant labourers, but the state government rejected the offer (Babu & Sahay, 2020 ). These incidents show how political parties consider migrant labourers as mere instruments. This points to a violation of the dignity of migrant labourers as a group through instrumentalisation.

While choosing to work or not work in a particular place is the choice of an individual guaranteed by the constitution of India, the pandemic period saw one of the organised violations of this freedom ensured by the constitution. A letter by the Karnataka state government dated May 5, 2020, allegedly sought the railways to cancel trains for migrant labourers after reported pressure from the builders’ association (Kulkarni, 2020 ). The move by the state is a clear-cut case of instrumentalisation of migrant labourers for economic reasons. The incident points to the fact that the wealthy in the free market economy lobby with the state mechanism to exploit migrant labourers as instruments to achieve their goals. The choice to travel home was stripped off from the migrant labourers by the very own machinery which was supposed to ensure their dignity. In addition to such established measures, the way employers left the migrant labourers to suffer by not providing any financial assistance for survival during the pandemic points to the fact that migrant labourers were considered mere objects for economic activities in the free market economy.

Dehumanisation of Unskilled Interstate Migrant Labourers During the Pandemic

Dehumanisation involves treating people as lesser beings. Dehumanisation is often talked about in the context of wars and genocides. However, the two characteristics that mark a dehumanising situation involves taking away from a person, either or both his identity and community (Kelman, 1973 ). The idea of treating a person as a lesser being need not always involve war-like situations. It need not always be active and violent in nature but could also be indirect exclusion (Oliver, 2011 ). Indirect deprivations of identity and exclusions from the community are cases of dehumanisation, though it does not involve organised dehumanisation. While the class and caste system often dehumanises the migrant labourers, the pandemic period was even more dehumanising for migrant labourers.

The spraying of migrant labourers with chemical solutions was such a dehumanising incident (BBC, 2020 ; Aljazeera, 2020 ; Gupta et al., 2020 ). Reports surfaced from the state of Uttar Pradesh where migrant labourers were videotaped rushing to collect banans in a transit centre, revealing the plight of the migrant labourers (The Quint, 2020 ). While the state had been catering to the needs of the middle class and the upper class that are privileged, the migrant labourers were paid no attention to. The migrant labourers faced a serious loss of their individual dignity and a consequent loss of their esteem as an individual, i.e. their identity.

The dehumanisation of migrant labourers was even worse, that sixteen migrant labourers died in Maharashtra as a freight train hit and run the tired migrant labourers who were sleeping on the railway lines during their journey on foot to home (Mahale & Banarjee, 2020 ; The Indian Express, 2020 ). Many others too have lost lives during their ordeal back home. The reports from railway officials suggest another 80 deaths inside the special ‘shramik trains’ arranged for transporting migrant labourers (Sharma, 2020 ). Also, migrant labourers on their return to many home states were quarantined in poor facilities with poor sanitation, scarce drinking water and bad food (Jafri, 2020 ; Loiwal, 2020 ; Misra, 2020 ). While other professionals travelling from overseas and within the border had better quarantine facilities in their communities, the migrant labourers were discriminated against as an inferior community (The Hindu, 2020 ). These incidents show how migrant labourers were dehumanised by the pitfalls in the administrative system.

Whose Welfare State?: the Dignity Violated

Article 23 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( 1948 ) states, ‘Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection’. The article reiterates the importance of protecting the human dignity of the working class by ensuring social protection in necessary times. The article seeks the member states to ensure measures to avoid violation of human dignity of labourers. The migrant labourers constitute a class that undergo human dignity violations and the pandemic brought to light some of the intense forms of dignity violation of migrant labourers. A welfare state is founded on the principles of equal opportunities, equitable distribution of wealth and a public responsibility towards the marginalised (Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d. ). A welfare state is entitled to promote the social and economic wellbeing of its citizens. The Directive Principles of the State Policy in the Indian Constitution seeks to promote the Welfare of the citizens emphasising on social, economic and political justice (Joshi, 1983 ). The idea of social, political and economic justice put forth by the constitution involves a call for protecting human dignity. The migrant labourers were denied their dignity through visible patterns of social, economic and political injustice. They were subjected to the violence of dignity in the forms of humiliation, instrumentalisation, degradation and dehumanisation. The cases of extreme human dignity violation during the pandemic were just a manifestation of what lied deep within the society and the system. Migrant labourers are a group of people with their dignity under threat in modern India. It raises the question of the dignity of the marginalised in a so-called welfare state.

Pandemic Response: What Worked and What Needs Revamping

While this research has been majorly focusing on the violations of human dignity, there were instances of efforts to ensure the welfare of the migrant labourers in many parts of the country. The state of Kerala, for instance, opened relief camps where migrant labourers were provided food and recreational facilities (Nileena, 2020 ) and the central government rolled out a package to provide free food grains for 8 crore migrant labourers (The Economic Times, 2020 ). Non-governmental organisations and charitable organisations played a crucial role in assisting migrant labourers to meet the basic needs by providing shelter, food, healthcare and other basic necessities (Suresh et al., 2020 ). These measures were all intended at ensuring the welfare of the migrant labourers. However, such efforts mostly revolved around ensuring the basic needs and did not take into consideration the ‘rights’ or ‘dignity’ perspective.

A true welfare state demands the protection of the dignity of migrant labourers as equal citizens. The acumen in expatriating citizens stranded in foreign nations showed the efficacy of the system in pooling resources for the welfare of the citizens during the pandemic. The same acumen was necessary in the case of the migrant labourers as well. They are equal citizens and they contribute to the economy and the society as well. The inequalities they face within their homeland raises serious questions of the nature of the welfare state in place. To change the current situation, extensive measures from the state to enforce strict ‘human dignity protection’ measures should be in place. The state should approach the problem from the perspective of ‘dignity’ to include the migrant labourers in the mainstream social fabric; an immediate reflection of the same could be initiating social security measures for migrant labourers. The state and society need to transcend the ‘needs-based approach’ to the problems of migrant labourers and start adopting a ‘dignity based approach’.

The idea of a welfare state is inclusive in itself, but the theory does not often translate into practice. The Indian Union has implemented legislations like The Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, ( 1979 ) aimed at the welfare of migrant labourers. The act, however, is primarily concerned with civil and economic rights. Even the minimum financial and civil protection ensured under the act is often undermined due to below-par implementation. The second and third-generation human rights that ensure human dignity in an extensive degree are yet to be addressed. The class and caste divide rooted in the social fabric of India precipitates discrimination and consequently a violation of human dignity of the migrant labourers. This basic discriminatory structure of the society has a role in inciting the instances of violations of migrant labourers’ human dignity during the pandemic.

While the pandemic was an unforeseen event taking the state off-guard, it cannot be pictured as a justifiable reason to put the dignity and rights of a group of citizens at risk. The pandemic-induced plight was just the culmination of an already complacent system. The report of the working group of migration (Government of India, 2017 ) set up by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation that had recommended comprehensive social security measures for migrant workers is still awaiting action. This points to the fact that the state has been complacent in this regard. The visible efficacy in pooling resources to repatriate Indians abroad was a testimony to the capabilities of the state in managing crisis situations. However, this vigorous approach was absent in the case of migrant labourers raising doubts on the state’s commitment towards internal migrants. The state needs to initiate a long term plan for the migrant labourers. Given the size of the migrant population of India, a centralised approach is out of the equation (Suresh et al., 2020 ). A public–private partnership model that decentralises the approach to migrant labourers’ welfare is a more suitable alternative. Moreover, migrant labourers’ issues must be perceived from a dignity perspective emphasising their rights.

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Choolayil, A.C., Putran, L. The COVID-19 Pandemic and Human Dignity: the Case of Migrant Labourers in India. J. Hum. Rights Soc. Work 6 , 225–236 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41134-021-00185-x

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The plight of migrants during COVID-19 and the impact of circular migration in India: a systematic review

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As per the reports of WHO, the COVID-19, first reported in December 2019, put the whole world in an unprecedented crisis and lingering uncertainty with innumerable deaths, generalised economic depression, unemployment, quarantine, unavoidable lockdown, and travel-ban that was imposed globally as a necessity to tackle the pandemic. Among the populace, the migrants were found to be one of the most vulnerable groups in this lockdown, as their very livelihood came to a complete standstill. This review-paper aims to investigate in detail the multiple facets of adversities the migrants went through in India during the lockdown and the socio-psychological impact of circular migration. Following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, studies on migrant workers during COVID-19 and on circular migration were searched. Database searches on Scopus, PubMed, and PsychNet and manual searches on Google Scholar were carried out. From the initially identified 15,697 articles, 15 articles that met the inclusion criteria were chosen for review. The findings highlight the different plight of the migrants, who had the pressing need to head back home to safety despite the acute financial crisis and the travel problems. The poor quality of the relief camps with meagre rations and lack of facilities especially put the women and children in distress and generated a lot of psychosocial issues. The present study urges the mental health-care professionals to groom themselves for facing the challenges of a surge in mental illnesses by taking necessary measures. It also emphasises the need to establish a strong ethical alliance between the local population, health systems, local government mechanisms, and human rights associations in order to take a relook at the national migration policies.

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The year 2019 brought with it a new pandemic, the COVID-19 that was first reported in the month of December as per the reports from World Health Organisation, and put the whole world in an unprecedented crisis, that has pushed it into a state of lingering uncertainty (WHO, 2020 ). The coronavirus disease 2019, commonly known as the COVID-19 pandemic, a corollary of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 infection, has led to a global public health crisis, innumerable deaths, generalised economic depression, redundancy, and quarantines (Aragona et al., 2020 ). The virus brought about a massive change to the existing systems and generated a whirlpool of hurdles that the people had never faced before or had no idea how to overcome. This eventually created overwhelming fear and mounting anxiety among the people due to the novelty of the crisis, the uncertainty it brought with it about how and when the situation will get back to normal, as well as the dread of an impending doom (Mishra and Sayeed, 2020 ). One of the biggest challenges was the complete lack of an effective treatment method or a preventive vaccine to overcome the virus (Rolland, 2020 ). To make matters worse, the pandemic affected people not only physically but also psychologically, economically, socially, and politically. People belonging to various socio-economic strata were affected adversely in this situation, regardless of their social status, as everyone had fallen prey to this crisis in one way or another. It is undeniably true that the life in the pandemic era effected a far-reaching change in the way people think, work and interact with one another around the world (Aragona et al., 2020 ). What is more, it has also taught the world the new normal ways of human relationships and social distancing, which are sure to linger on for quite a while (Ram, 2020 ; Rolland, 2020 ). It has also provided the world a lesson about the worthlessness of the rat race and the fragility of human life. It is certainly true that the pandemic has led the world to a paradigm shift in the attitude and behaviour of people as never before.

The pandemic brought with it lockdowns and travel-bans that were imposed by the governments all over the world as a necessity to tackle the pandemic and to rein in its outspread. However, the lockdown upset the daily routines of the people especially the working class who were put in a major financial predicament (Chander et al., 2020 ). A new normalcy of surviving in a state of constant panic came into place, with the people being asked to live in this uncertainty for a longer duration than what was anticipated in the beginning of the pandemic. A batch of novel practices came into existence as part of rigorous mitigation efforts, such as, “social distancing, household quarantine, facemasks, vigilant sanitisation and hand washing, and avoidance of public gatherings, public transportation etc.” (Rolland, 2020 ). As time passed and the situation became worse, the pandemic has slowly unmasked its harsh reality and people have started grasping this truth that the current state of the situation is going to last longer than what was presumed of it in the beginning, and this has affected them rather drastically. The transformational process of adapting to this pandemic risk as a public or global calamity, while dealing with the fear of contracting COVID-19, and managing the disease, is highly exhausting and not doable by all (Rolland, 2020 ).

The daily wagers were the worst sufferers of this lockdown. With the enforcement of the lockdown, not only were they without jobs but also were frustrated because of the cessation of their daily income on which they survived (Ram, 2020 ). Their very livelihood came to a complete standstill; as a result, they could not meet theirs as well as their families’ daily needs (Chakma, 2020 ). The migrants were found to be the most vulnerable among the working class to come under this economy fallout (Nanda, 2020 ). The situation affected people belonging to all classes; moreover, it has exposed in the bare open the blatant disparities that exist in the socio-economic and health-care facilities (Aragona et al., 2020 ). In addition, it has been found that the perils of sickness and deaths vary colossally by “social location, such as, race, social class, gender, age, ability, and geographic location” (Rolland, 2020 ). There were many reported cases of suicide and suicidal attempts especially by people from economically lower classes, as they were not able to cope with the problems stemming from the loss of job and income (Kumar and Vashisht, 2009 ; Mukhra, 2020 ; Nelson, 2020 ).

In addition, the mental strain this pandemic imposed on the common people was especially enormous. One such group that was highly and adversely affected by this crisis situation was the migrants, who had to move out to different parts of the country in search of jobs to sustain their families (Singh, 2020a , 2020b , 2020c ). There are about 100 million internal migrant workers in India, and most of them are daily-wage labourers who have travelled out from different states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, etc. to other states in search of unskilled or semi-skilled jobs (Hazarika, 2020). Based on the data obtained from the National Sample Survey (NSS) 2007–2008, out of the total workforce in India, about 28.3% were migrants. According to 2011 census, about 37% of India’s total population were found to be migrants (Singh, 2021 ). This was a climb of 139 million migrants from what was reported in 2001 census (Census of India, 2011 ; Singh, 2020a , 2020b , 2020c ).

These migrants too were trapped in the lockdown with no jobs and no money, facing major economic setback, besides being isolated from their families due to the sudden lockdown (Mishra and Sayeed, 2020 ). While India’s population of 1.3 billion people could not but come to terms with the changes of imposed social distancing, millions of migrant workers in India had other daunting tasks also to confront with (Londhe, 2020 ). The concept of social distancing bears no meaning for the migrants because of the persistence of even more pressing and nagging problems of insecurity and hunger. Based on the data obtained from Census 2011, it was found that there was a rise in total number of migrants by 30% from that of 2001, whose major destinations are growth centres and states like Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala (Census of India, 2011 ; Dandekar and Ghai, 2020 ; Nanda, 2020 ). Even though, the lockdown situation affected the community at large and people were obliged to stay at home, the migrants could not even be in the comfort of being locked in with their families; instead, they were destined to be stuck in a migrant land with no means to survive (Kumar et al., 2020 ). Therefore, this community had to endure more appalling hardships than anyone else, not only financially but also socially and mentally (Aragona et al., 2020 ; Singh, 2020a , 2020b , 2020 c).

In order to alleviate the suffering of migrants it is necessary to investigate, understand, and analyse the hardships they have been undergoing. In-depth explorations of the studies in the Indian context dealing with circular migration and their psychological impact are needed to foster greater awareness among the public and to introduce new measures that can be adopted to safeguard the rights of the migrants.

This review-paper aims to study in detail the multiple facets of the predicaments the migrant workers were going through in the Indian context during the pandemic and the lockdown. Its main objective is to focus on the hardships that have led the migrants to a circular migration or reverse migration and the adversities that have been brought about by circular migration during the pandemic upon the migrants. The study also aims to shed light on the psychological toll inflicted by this pandemic on the migrants and the resultant reverse migration. Furthermore, it focuses on the means to address the issues concerning their mental health-care, and makes recommendations on the measures to protect their human rights and safeguard their lives and livelihood.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic review that has specifically focused on the plight of the migrant workers during the pandemic and the issues revolving around circular migration in the Indian context. The consequences of this pandemic have put the world in a state of impending doom and therefore, there is a compelling need to address the situation especially of the migrants who are among the groups, which are most affected by the adverse outcomes of COVID-19 and subsequent restrictions on mobility. A systematic review helps to synthesise the data related to this from all available sources and to integrate them in order to efficiently reach and promote awareness among health-care professionals, policy makers, administrative staff, future researchers, and the general public. The findings of this study could therefore be used for formulating new strategies for the betterment of migrant workers.

Types of studies included

Studies on migration and circular migration of Indians during the COVID-19 crisis were considered to be included in the current systematic review, regardless of the type of study, research design, or the outcomes. However, studies on emigrants, immigrants, and migrants in other countries were excluded from the study.

Subjects of the study

The population for the study were unskilled migrant workers in India, who were among the most affected during the lockdown due to their low socio-economic status, besides being increasingly prone to mental health issues.

Search strategy

The search string used in Scopus was: TITLE-ABS-KEY (“circular migration”) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (migration) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (migrant) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (covid) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (covid-19); in PsychNET (Abstract: “circular migration” OR Abstract: “migration” OR Abstract: “migrant” AND Abstract: “covid” OR Abstract: “covid-19” AND Publication); and in PubMed (“circular migration” [Title/Abstract] OR “migration” [Title/Abstract] OR “migrant” [Title/Abstract]) AND “covid” [Title/Abstract]) OR “covid-19” [Title/Abstract]).

Data management

All pinpointed references were imported to Zotero, a bibliographic reference management tool, and all duplicates were removed. The de-duplicated citations in Zotero were imported to the data extraction form for coding.

Selection of studies

The first and third authors simultaneously screened the articles for the titles and abstracts and did the initial screening and data extraction independently. Articles that dealt with the plight of migrant workers during COVID-19 pandemic were included for the full text review. After the primary screening, the selected articles were reviewed for full text reading to determine their eligibility. The articles were selected if they were falling under the time-period of 2019–20 and discussed the plight of migrants during the lockdown and also addressed their psychological issues during this crisis in the Indian context. Final decision on the eligibility and the reasons for exclusion of studies were documented on the data extraction form.

Study characteristics

The final sample for the systematic review included 15 studies, which were all published in the year 2020. Most of the studies were descriptive and qualitative in nature ( n  = 12) and discussed the plight of the migrants and the various adversities encountered by them in India during the lockdown, while the others ( n  = 3) were quantitative in nature that addressed in-depth the psychological issues faced by the migrants. All the articles were based on the Indian context, and most of the articles were pan Indian in their approach, while some articles ( n  = 4) focused on conditions of migrants in their respective states or cities alone, specifically Chandigarh, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata. The articles discussed the various economic, social and psychological issues faced by the migrants. Some articles ( n  = 8) also elaborated on the steps taken by the government and made suggestions about policies that can be adopted to better the lives of the migrants. Among this, some studies ( n  = 3) also focused on making psychological interventions to help the migrants (Chander et al., 2020 ; Singh, 2020a , 2020b , 2020 c; Kumar et al., 2020 ).

The characteristics and main findings of these studies are summarised and presented in Table 1 .

Identification of the studies

In total, 15,697 studies were detected through database searching; among which 15 studies met the inclusion criteria and were further analysed for the present review. (The PRISMA flow diagram is shown in Fig. 1 ). Out of the 15,697 studies, 450 were from PsychNet, 14,988 were from PubMed, 229 from Scopus and 30 from Google Scholar. After the initial screening (which included the removal of duplicates), 106 articles were selected and assessed for eligibility, from which 91 studies were excluded and the final 15 were selected.

Stages involved in finalizing the articles for analysis after obtaining the data.

Distribution of migrants

Based on the data obtained in the Census 2011, it was found that the distribution of migrants to the total population across cities were, Delhi 43.1%, Mumbai, 54.9%, Kolkata 40.8%, Chennai 51.8%, Bangalore 52.3%, Hyderabad 64.3%, Ahmedabad 48.7% and Pune 64.8% (Census of India, 2011 ). As per the reports from a study, it was found that the highest number of COVID-19 cases as of 13 th April 2020 was reported in Delhi with 898 cases followed by Mumbai with 880. The share of COVID-19 cases from these metropolitan cities to the total percent was 38% (Bhagat et al., 2020 ).

Plight of migrants

All the studies focused on the various problems that the crisis has brought for the migrants, including the psychological and social issues. Out of the articles chosen for the current systematic review, the findings from a study (Kumar et al., 2020 ) on the psychological impact of the pandemic on the migrants ( n  = 98), revealed that about 63.3% of participants underwent loneliness and around 48% of them felt that there was a decrease in their social connectedness. Also, they found that roughly 50% experienced fear of death, around 58.2% individuals experienced frustration and tension, about 51% felt irritable and anxious, and three fourth of the participants were diagnosed with depression.

Statistics obtained from studies also suggested that almost only 4% of the total population of the migrants received rations that were allotted by the government, and 29% did not receive rations despite having ration cards (Farooqui and Pandey, 2020 ). Almost 90% of the migrants either faced loss of pay or a reduction in their salary (Shahare, 2020 ). International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated a decline of 22.6% in the wages of migrant workers post lockdown (Gothoskar, 2021 ). A survey conducted across 179 districts in India from May 30, 2020 to July 16, 2020 found that around 35% of the migrants went without any meal the whole day (Pandit, 2020 ).

The findings from some articles focused on circular migration and its adverse consequences ( n  = 5), while a few other articles reported the problems of discrimination faced by migrants belonging to the disadvantaged communities ( n  = 2). Some articles also emphasised the financial crisis created by this pandemic ( n  = 4), which was particularly acute for the migrants. All the studies shed light on the psychological issues faced by the migrants and among this, a few studies ( n  = 3) also suggested interventions for the migrants (Chander et al., 2020 ; Singh, 2020a , 2020b , 2020 c; Kumar et al., 2020 ). Many studies ( n  = 8) also pointed out the urgent need for revising the existing government-policies and taking new initiatives by the government for the betterment of the migrant workers.

Among the 15 studies, one study (Chander et al., 2020 ) reported visiting various spots across the city ( n  = 140), contacting around 5048 migrants and offering assistance to nearly 3944 migrants. In another study under the District Mental Health Program, Chandigarh, many migrants ( n  = 61) were attended to for their mental health issues and taken care of (Singh, 2020a , 2020b , 2020 c). In the same city, another study was carried out among migrants ( n  = 98), which found that the majority of the participants were facing one or the other mental health issues and made interventions on a limited scale (Kumar et al., 2020 ).

One of the key elements and an integral factor contributing to development among the human civilisation is migration (Nanda, 2020 ). Migration happens at both individual and community levels, and occurs due to multiple reasons such as the lookout for better job opportunities, improved living conditions and for enhanced productivity and thereby greater income (Raj, 1981 ; Shahare, 2020 ). Migration takes place based on the various vital resources that are available in the ecosystem (Ram, 2020 ). The practice of migration has happened from time immemorial and can be traced from the beginning of humanity, as it first existed in the form of nomads who moved in groups from one place to another in the lookout for better resources, and later on as invasions by various rulers (Rolland, 2020 ).

Migration is regarded as a continuous process that is common to all living beings (Virupaksha, 2014 ). There are two major types of migration: one that takes place within a country across a district or a state-border, which is known as internal or national migration; and the other a migration that involves crossing international borders, which is referred to as external or international migration (Bhagat, 2020a ). Migrants associated with these types of migration are called in-migrants and out-migrants respectively (Sinha, 2005 ). Further, based on the place of origin and destination, migration can be classified into four categories: (i) rural–rural, (ii) rural–urban, (iii) urban–urban and (iv) urban–rural (Amin, 2018 ; Kishore and Kiran, 2013 ). The types of labour migration can be broadly classified as (i) Permanent, (ii) Commuting, and (iii) Circular (Haas and Osland, 2014 ). Permanent refers to the situation when the migrant does not intend to return to their native lands. Commuting refers to the regular movement between an individual’s home and work, which is characterised by the separation between the workplace and residence (Colla et al., 2017 ). Circular migration is a situation where the migrants do not stay in the migrated lands forever but instead go back to their native lands after some time, and then might move again to a different place (Gomathi, 2014 ).

In general, the migrants go to their destinations to fulfil their livelihood/career aspirations and/or to satisfy their basic requirements, but they return to their places of origin after a certain period to settle down, which is a “circular” process (Ghosh, 1985 ). “Hence circular migration is viewed as a cyclic journey of the migrants, which encompasses with their living pattern in two worlds i.e., urban insecure employment and stable homeland” (Nanda, 2020 ).

According to the National Sample Survey (NSS) and the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), the migrant labourers are mainly from rural areas and come from very poor backgrounds and belong to the lower social classes like the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) (Shahare, 2020 ). According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the inter-state migration in pursuit of an occupation every year around the world was estimated to be around 9 million, and this is acknowledged as “temporary, contingent and non-standard” in nature with minimal access to societal perks and labour privileges (Chander et al., 2020 , p.1). The administrative and socio-cultural barriers and the language differences in addition to geographical variance further hinder the process of migration (Aragona et al., 2020 ). The migrant workers are inclined to falling prey to adverse mental health impacts of various traumas created through interfaces of multiple factors such as, “abject poverty, malnutrition, cultural bereavement, loss of religious practices and social protection systems, malalignment with a new culture, coping with language difficulties, changes in identity, substance abuse, poor access to health-care, in addition to the poor living conditions and financial constraints”, as a result of migrating to a new state (Choudhari, 2020 , p. 5).

A large majority of the migrants are daily wagers who have low-income and poor living conditions that are dilapidated, unhygienic and scarce of basic amenities like clean water supply, and electricity (Kusuma et al., 2014 ). Most of the migrants are slum-dwellers with inadequate sanitation facilities and are forced to go for open defecation because of the lack of lavatories. As the migrants are not used to the food of the lands of their migration, many of them turn towards fast food centres, which deprives them of nutritious and healthy diets (Babu et al., 2017 ). The above-mentioned factors have made them susceptible to multiple physical and mental health problems (Chander et al., 2020 ). There are no government machinery, department, board or other direct administering body to address the grievances of these migrant workers; neither do they have any rights or privileges in the regions in which they work or in the villages to which they belong (Nirmala, 2020 ).

Upon the rise of the pandemic, the migrants were among the groups of victims who were acutely affected by the lockdown (Choudhari, 2020 ). These daily wagers are said to be the weakest and socially neglected community that forms the classic nobodies among Indian citizens (Shahare, 2020 ).

The migrants were trapped in their migrated lands, far away from their families and loved ones with minimal health-care facilities, poor living conditions, besides being devoid of a job and having no money or means to survive (Ram, 2020 ). The migrants are more likely to fall prey to various traumas emanating from all three domains- social, psychological, and emotional, which stem from the dread of being discriminated and ignored by the local community around them and the grave concerns that arise about the safety and comfort of their families in their native places (Kumar et al., 2020 ).

Circular migration, as a result of the pandemic, generated severe stress, tension, despair, addiction to substance use, and self-harm behaviour among the migrants. In addition, they had greater concerns that deeply affected them, such as, “uncertainty about the duration of the lockdown; desperate longing to travel and meet their families; fear of being abandoned/deserted by their employers; insecurity about job and income; acute distress that arose from their inability to look after the health issues of children and pregnant women” (Chander et al., 2020 , p. 2)

Desire to return to their homeland

Once the lockdown was implemented, the primary concern for most of the migrants was to return safely to their families. Being isolated from the families created more stress and tension among them and caused a lot of growing anxiety about the travel possibilities.

On 19th March 2020, the Indian Railways announced the sudden suspension of passenger trains and, as a consequence, there was a mass exodus of utterly terrified migrant workers. Thousands of migrant workers across Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) were seen carrying heavy baggage and wailing children walking on national highways, boarding tractors, and shoving each other around for seats in buses to leave for their homes. The government, upon understanding the problems of jobless migrants to access food and shelter, tried to reassure them by announcing an assistance by an extended scheme under the Prime Minister’s Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY). This offered relief packages to the migrants and daily wagers with the aim of blocking any disruptions to their employment besides supporting small establishments. However, this initiative was not satisfactory, because despite these efforts of the government, a huge number of migrants spent restless nights without food, asylum and/or travel facilities (Nanda, 2020 ). Failure in the implementation of the government’s assurance to provide basic necessities such as food and water forced thousands of migrant labourers to flock to the city’s bus terminals (Singh, 2020a , 2020b , 2020 c). However, not everyone could get on a bus and leave for their homelands (Ram, 2020 ).

Since most of the public transport was suspended as part of COVID-19 safety precautions, the migrants were stuck at their place of work and felt completely miserable (Chander et al., 2020 ). Even though they were aware of the risks involved in travelling back to their hometowns, both for them and their families, most of them desperately longed to get back home. They believed that it would be comforting to be with their loved ones during this time of uncertainty of impending death and was increasingly impatient to travel back home. They yearned to go back, so much so that they were even willing to put up with the discomforts of the travel quarantine norms imposed by the government (Chander et al., 2020 ).

From surveys conducted by NGOs like Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN), it was found that due to scarcity of money and food, many of the migrants had very little to eat and some were even on the brink of starvation (Staff, 2020 ; Shahare, 2020 ). Most of these migrants suffered hunger pangs and police brutality and hundreds of people died tragically enroute to their homelands during the pandemic (Santoshini, 2020 ).

Fear of losing job

As much intense was the desire of the migrants to go back to their families, so were their worries about losing their jobs. Millions of migrant labourers employed across various sectors like construction, agriculture, manufacturing, transport and other services were stuck in their migrant locations during the lockdown. Even those migrant labourers who did not lose their jobs, as they were employed in essential services, had to suffer from wage-cuts imposed by their employers. They were therefore worried over how they would meet their regular expenses like those on food, clothing, medicines and accommodation. For those who were away from their worksite for several days together, there was absolutely no job security, and this led to a mounting panic in them. On the other hand, those who lost their jobs had the additional worries about whether and how they could return to their hometowns. Owing to the prevailing travel restrictions and the non-availability of transport facilities, there was no certainty about whether and when they would be able to travel back. The dread of being forsaken by their employers and the creeping fear of being abandoned with no job, wages or place to stay was indeed a traumatic experience for them (Chander et al., 2020 ).

Financial distress

As per the certified employment valuation, Indian industries have millions of internal migrant staff who make significant contributions to the economy of India. (Deshingkar and Akter, 2009 ; Choudhari, 2020 ). Although India’s economic growth is dependent to a great extent on the cheap labour of such migrants who work for even less than the minimum wages, they remained unrewarded and obscure in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), and were excluded from relief funds during the COVID-19 crisis (Shahare, 2020 ).

The International Labour Organization (2020) has observed that migrant labourers are the worst-hit by the current economic crisis. The costs of basic hygienic products necessary for individual security during the pandemic (such as detergents, soaps, sanitisers) have become prohibitively expensive and unaffordable for the migrants, because they were thrown out of their jobs and had no other sources of income (Srivastava, 2020 ). Many employers have either fired the migrant workers without any prior notice or have stopped paying them salaries. The financial crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted severe difficulties for the lower income families in meeting the costs of food, clothing and medicines (Mishra and Sayeed, 2020 ). Adding to the financial woes of the migrants, the NITI Aayog (a public policy think-tank of the Government of India) reduced food subsidies from 75 to 60% in rural areas and from 50 to 40% in urban areas (Gothoskar, 2021 ). Studies done on earlier recessions (Kumar et al., 2020 ) have pointed out that the work-loss during an economic crisis often leads to “longstanding unemployment and wage impediments, deteriorating or worsening the health of unemployed workers and thereby increasing poverty” (Khanna, 2020 , p. 3–4).

Quality of the relief camps

Not all migrants could travel back to their homelands before the lockdown. All those who were left behind were allotted food and accommodation by the government (Singh et al., 2020 ). Numerous labourers had to remain in extremely tiny and congested rooms with nearly nothing to live on. Seven to eight individuals were confined in a tiny room with practically no ventilation, and no appropriate space to cook food (Shahare, 2020 ).

In majority of the relief camps there were no essential facilities such as power, light, fan, latrines and water, and most of them were absolutely packed, and the old occupants were not permitting new ones to come in. Consequently, there were a lot of fights, maltreatments and bullying among the migrant groups (Shahare, 2020 ).

The anxiety of catching the disease, as described in the words of a Dalit migrant as a personal experience account was such, “that we were scared that we might get infected with the virus because there was a COVID-19 positive patient in my neighbouring street … we did not want to stay anymore in Mumbai because we were anxious of getting the infection through using the public toilet or sharing food because we lived in a slum and we don’t have separate toilet and housing; thus we decided that now we shall return to our village” (Pankaj, 2020 , p. 5). Although the government had allotted food and shelter for the migrants, it was found that in most of the shelter homes and relief camps people did not receive sufficient quantity and quality food on time. They had to wait for three to four hours in long queues since morning for their meals. Thousands of calls related to scarcity of food were made to the police from these camps on a daily basis (Shahare, 2020 ).

Shortages in the allotted rations

The report by SWAN that was released on 15th April 2020, stated that, “only 51%, of who were surveyed, had rations left for less than one day” (Farooqui and Pandey, 2020 ). It further observed that, “two weeks into the lockdown, only 1% of the stranded workers had received rations from the government, and three weeks into the lockdown, 96% of the migrants had not received rations from the government at all, 70% had not received any cooked food, 78% had less than Rs.300 left with them and 89% had not been paid by their employers at all during the lockdown” (Shahare, 2020 , p. 6). The distribution of rations was on the basis of the person possessing a ration card, but most of the migrants did not have a permanent residence or necessary legal documents, and therefore were unable to get a ration card.

This distribution system became faulty due to the lack of an inter-state portable ration cards acceptable in all states. The impact of this problem has got aggravated, as a large section of the migrants neither have a valid ID proof nor have been registered under any special schemes set up for them. Although the government has enacted the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979 to facilitate the lives and work of migrant labourers, it has remained ineffective due to poor implementation, as per the reports of the Standing Committee on Labour (PRS India, 2020).

An article in The New Indian Express , published on 29 March 2020, reported that about 200 migrant workers belonging to the Soliga tribe were stranded at coffee estates in a village of Kodagu (formerly known as Coorg) district in the Indian state of Karnataka and were running out of food and were living in awful conditions (Chakma, 2020 ). On the publication of this article, the government of Karnataka reached out to them and distributed rations of rice and pluses and other necessary food products like eggs, ghee and edible oil to the tribal families (Chakma, 2020 ).

The Delhi Government has developed shelter homes, quarantine homes and relief camps for the migrants and are taking care of about 600,000 individuals, besides providing food to more than 2.2 million migrants under their Free Ration Scheme, facilitated by the One Nation One Ration Card Scheme of the Government of India. Despite this, millions of migrants are still excluded from these schemes and have not received any help from the Government (Mukhra, 2020 ).

Insufficient health-care facilities

The migrant population including mothers, children, and pregnant women, were deeply apprehensive about their well-being, and had serious concerns about their health inside the shelter homes. This group at large was already predisposed to communicable diseases due to their malnutrition, socio-economic status, occupational hazards, and the poor living conditions (Choudhari, 2020 ). The deplorable conditions in the relief camps prevented them from following any basic safety precautions like practising social distancing, regular washing of hands, use of sanitiser and masks, that each individual was required to do as part of the standard procedure for fighting COVID-19. Unfortunately, practising these measures was extremely difficult or impossible in their crowded and ill-equipped camp-accommodations, and this has put the group at great risk of contracting the disease (Andrade, 2020 ; Chander et al., 2020 ). Even the symptoms of common cold, such as “fever, cough and throat pain” among the people were feared as Covid-infections, which threw everyone into a panic and caused a lot of bitter resentment amongst those living in the community (Chander et al., 2020 ).

Hardships of women in the camps

Female migrant workers confronted daunting challenges while living along with unknown men in these shelter homes. One major problem was in using the common toilets with them, which was highly unhygienic and likely to cause infections under the prevailing pandemic conditions. There was no privacy or protection available for the women during day or night. The plight of pregnant women was particularly miserable as they were greatly inconvenienced in these camps and shelter-homes. There were no facilities for regular medical check-up by doctors or for taking scans or conducting the necessary tests.

It was found in one of the surveys that nearly 42% of the pregnant migrant women did not receive any medical check-ups during the lockdown (Pandit, 2020 ). All these were highly disconcerting for the women who were forced to live in these camps (Shahare, 2020 ).

Withdrawal symptoms

Majority of the migrants use one or the other type of substances such as tobacco or alcohol. Therefore, the non-availability of these products during the lockdown has led to severe withdrawal symptoms in many of them. In a study conducted in Bangalore (Chander et al., 2020 ) a few migrants spoke out that they all have become “sober” due to non-availability of alcohol and other substances. Some of them even spoke about their withdrawal issues, which caused a lot of frustration in them and resulted in relationship problems, domestic violence, and psychiatric illnesses. Heavier alcohol usage and criminal sexual behaviour have been reported in communities of predominantly single men compared to those living with their families.

Psychological issues

The poor living conditions of the migrants the shortages for the basic necessities have caused severe mental stress to many of them, which got manifested in their lives in the form of relationship problems, substance abuse, alcoholism, sexual exploitation, domestic violence, and psychiatric illnesses (NACP III, 2007 ; Kumar et al., 2020 ). Adding further to the burden of the awful shock wave of physical distress caused by the pandemic, there was a gigantic wave of psychological issues among migrant labourers, with deaths due to suicides as its lead sign (Singh, 2020a , 2020b , 2020 c). Suicidal tendencies were provoked among the migrants, as they lived constantly under severe financial worries, loneliness, anxiety, fear, and feelings of hopelessness and isolation (Choudhari, 2020 ). The constant fear of an impending doom of a completely dark future has further intensified their psychological distress and discomfort.

With the imposition of the lockdown, not all were able to go back to their homelands. Instead, they were stranded in the migrant lands with no income but only uncertainty about travelling back home, which made them mentally disturbed and agitated (Singh, 2020a , 2020b , 2020 c). As all the workplaces were shut down, there was an increasing panic about whether and when they would be reopened. Even if the workplaces are reopened, there was no guarantee that all the former employees would be hired back. There was a lingering fear in the minds of these displaced workers that the recession in the aftermath of the pandemic would result in large scale firing of employees. This fear and distress accompanied the migrants who travelled to their native lands and at the same time restrained some of them from going back to their native lands (Nanda, 2020 ).

The living conditions of the migrants also induced distress and concern as they were heavily crammed up and unhygienic, which was the complete opposite of an ideal place to be in during the pandemic. The fear and agony of living in such harsh conditions and the lingering uncertainty about the future gave rise to many psychiatric issues among them, such as anxiety disorders and substance abuse. In a study on migrants, it was found that there is increased risk for the manifestation of schizophrenia and related non affective psychosis among first- and second-generation migrants (Henssler et al., 2019 ). As most of the migrants belonged to the socio-economically backward classes, they are subjected to much inequity and prejudice from the people in the migrant lands, and were never able to fit in with the new surroundings. Studies from the clinical psychology perspective have found that experiencing discrimination and social exclusion has led to increased rates of psychotic experiences among migrants (Mishra and Sayeed, 2020 ).

In most of the cases of the migrants, the absence of a caretaker or a family member with them has caused an unceasing feeling of loneliness and frustration (Zhou et al., 2020 ). There was also a continuous feeling of helplessness caused by their inability to meet the livelihood and health requirements of their families, living away in their homelands. This has greatly deepened their agony of being stuck far away from home (Choudhari, 2020 ).

Apart from causing harmful effects on the body, the virus has the ability to inflict longstanding psychological disorders such as “depression, anxiety, panic disorder, and psychosomatic manifestations” (Qiu et al., 2020 , p. 2). There were several reported attempts of self-harm and suicides by the migrants (Singh, 2020a , 2020b , 2020 c). The pathetic situation they are in and the ambiguity about the extent of the crisis created a panic response among the migrants and made them act out frantically. The nagging anxiety levels that were mounting among the masses day by day led them to set out on their travel on foot for several hundred miles in order to reach their destinations, their homelands, with no facility of food or shelter during the journey (Choudhari, 2020 ).

Although the mental-distress cases were escalating, it was noticed that there was a drastic decline in the number of patients (both new and follow up cases) visiting the psychiatric outpatient services after the lockdown. Apparently, the reluctance to visit the clinics was out of the fear of contracting the virus. However, the danger of ignoring any psychological treatment at a time when they are estimated to be rising holds the possibilities of adverse effects on the efficacy of treatment. In addition, the considerable decline in follow-up visits also paves way to the threat of relapse (Aragona et al., 2020 ).

Racial discrimination of the North Eastern migrants

It was reported by the Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) on 26 March 2020, that, during the time-period from 7th February 2020 to 25 th March 2020, there were twenty-two incidents (in different parts of the country) of racial discrimination and assaults against individuals from the North East (Chakma, 2020 ). They were called names such as “Corona”, “Chinese”, and “Chinki”, and were glared at, along with shouting of expletives. India’s mongoloid looking citizens were subjected to insults while they were strolling on the roads, doing their shopping or travelling in trains and buses. They were called “Covid”, and coercively isolated, even though they had negative COVID-19 certificates. They were denied entry into public places, and were driven out of eateries and shared transports.

Psychosocial issues

The high levels of anxiety and stress induced among the general public by the lockdown during this pandemic was felt more intensely among the migrants, leading to many more psychosocial issues among them. The stress generated in the migrants made them behave in socially unacceptable ways and caused panic attacks on them. Consequently, they started fleeing hastily from the migrant lands. In order to go back to their home states at the earliest, they started crowding at the local bus stands and railway stations in desperation, ignoring all lockdown rules. This reckless behaviour of violating the norms of preventive measures resulted in the perpetual vicious cycle of being exposed to infection, quarantine, distress and hostilities (Choudhari, 2020 ). Although the most pressing need for all migrants at that time was the immediate return to their homelands from the migrant lands, the reverse migration came with a lot of appalling hardships and several other related problems (Tandon, 2020 ; Wong et al., 2019 ; Chakma, 2020 ).

Issues of reverse migration

Owing to circular migration or reverse migration, there was an acute shortage of workers in the urban areas from where the migrant workers had left for their homelands (Srivastava, 2020 ). This shortage, combined with the new relaxed laws in both occupational and industrial health, compelled the available local workers to work for longer durations than what was actually expected of them, which was in fact against the Factories Act of 1948 (Rivera et al., 2020 ; Wong et al., 2019 ). As a result, there was a drastic decline in the resting hours of the workers, which in turn led to the rise in stress and burnout among them and made them more prone to mental health issues (Choudhari, 2020 ).

The phenomenon of reverse migration has a bigger effect on the indigenous communities in the migrant lands as well. Reverse migration can mop out endangered indigenous Indian communities’ inhabitants and eternally ruin the subsistence of several such communities. As there were millions of people belonging to outside communities, such as those from the North East, have migrated to the urban cities in search of work in unorganised sectors, the lockdown induced re-migration would adversely affect the urban economies for want of labourers, as well as lead to the destruction of the economy of the migrants’ homelands because of the loss of jobs and income for those families and the resultant food and hunger crisis (Chakma, 2020 ).

The problems of the migrants did not cease to exist even after their reverse migration to their homelands. On reaching back to their homelands, their problems were mainly about staying in quarantine and the difficulties associated with it (Mishra and Sayeed, 2020 ).

Issues with quarantine after reverse migration

As part of the travel protocol prescribed for the pandemic-times, all migrants going back to their homelands were expected to be tested for COVID-19 and were expected to stay in self-isolation or quarantine at their homeland-residences for a minimum of fourteen days. Most of the migrants come from poor backgrounds with only a single room in their houses. Under this situation, they had to spend their quarantine period outside their houses. It was reported that in the Purulia district of West Bengal, some migrants spent their quarantine period outside the village limits by sleeping under trees, inside trucks or buses, or in make-shift shelters (Chakma, 2020 ). Similarly, in the Siwan area of Bihar, the labourers who managed to arrive at their hometowns were placed in extremely small spaces behind an iron gate in an infectious condition. To their good fortune, they were rescued from there on the following day and were transported in trucks to the isolation centres of their respective panchayats (Mishra and Sayeed, 2020 ).

Since the panchayat-shelters were also makeshift arrangements, there were very few protective measures provided to the residents. As the migrants were crowded in these shelters in high concentration, there was a significant risk of infection. In most places, the migrant labourers were stuck in these makeshift camps for many days, with poor infrastructure and inadequate food supply (Mishra and Sayeed, 2020 ).

Since the imposition of the lockdown, the media has featured several stories of the pathetic situation of the migrant labourers in various parts of the country. In the Bareli district of Uttar Pradesh, many migrants including women and children were forcefully pushed to clean themselves up in chemical baths as a sanitisation measure (Sammadar, 2020 ).

In general, the overall condition of the migrants was inexpressibly pathetic. Their worries and adversities did not come to an end. From being stuck in the lockdown in migrant lands to going through the difficulties of reverse migration and the struggles of survival, battling through quarantine and financial crisis during the pandemic-time was a fierce combat they had to wage while trying to stay alive and safe from the risk of starvation and infection.

This paper is an attempt to assess (based on published research papers) the plight of the migrants during the Covid crisis, in terms of their economic, social and health conditions. It brought into limelight the adversities, vulnerabilities, as well as the physical and psychological distresses and discriminations faced by the migrants under the onslaught of this pandemic in the Indian context, along with the problems of the resultant circular migration. From the survey of the 15 selected studies, it was clear that most of the problems faced by the migrants were due to them having been stranded in the migrated lands due to the lockdown. They were stuck in relief camps that had poor living conditions, with no job or income and, therefore, no means to travel back to their homelands. They became vulnerable to many physical and psychological illnesses, and received hardly any medical care from the government. In addition to suffering from the lack of basic physical facilities and the scarcity in the allocated resources, they also faced social issues such as discrimination and attacks from the local people.

Owing to the unpredictable nature of the pandemic and the uncertain turns it was taking with the passage of time, there was no end in sight for the crisis, and so the migrants couldn’t expect any relief from this tragic situation they were locked down in. The government launched several initiatives for the welfare of the migrants. One of them is the “The Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan”, through which they distributed free food grains for migrant workers without ration cards for a period of 2 months. Another government program was the “Affordable Rental Housing Complexes for Migrant Workers and Urban Poor”, which provided affordable rental housing units under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PRSIndia, 2020 ). Although there were many such initiatives by the government, most of them were poorly implemented, and therefore, they became non-functional and failed to reach the entire migrant population.

Through the present study, the authors conclude that, based on the evaluation of the factors affecting the migrants, it is necessary to adopt immediate interventions for the welfare of the migrants.

Recommendations

One of the most pressing needs of the migrants is to have access to health services, which are equitable, non-discriminatory, and appropriate according to age and gender. In order to ensure maximum effectiveness, these measures must be people-centred and migrant sensitive, so as to deliver services that are culturally and linguistically appropriate because migrants are different from the people in the migrated lands, as they are subjected to different kinds of distress and exploitation.

Additionally, addressing and improving the mental health of the migrants are extremely necessary. Providing regular facilities such as in-person counselling, tele-counselling, therapies and psychosocial services is a necessity. In addition to this, systematic assessments must be conducted for early detection of and early interventions for any mental disorders among the migrants. Forming a strong ethical alliance between the local population, health systems, local government, and human rights associations to ensure the welfare of these migrants is also necessary. Furthermore, it is vitally important to prevent the spread of any fake news about the virus and to convey evidence-based accurate information to the public.

A major issue that calls for special attention is the well-being of women and children among the migrants. Women should be provided adequate services for maintaining reproductive health, maternal health, postnatal care, paediatric care and preventive/remedial measures for dealing with domestic or sexual abuse. These services must be focused on risk assessment and treatment for improving their health conditions and must not be used to screen out their health issues; nor should they be used as a tool for discrimination or for enforcing any restrictions. The migrant community must also be given priority for vaccination by the local administrations because of their particular vulnerability to the virus-infection. Furthermore, since the major cause for their health issues is the deplorable living conditions of the relief camps, the respective state governments should take the necessary steps to improve the living conditions in all relief camps.

It is essential to monitor health-care practices of the migrants and generate a repository of relevant health-care information during the pandemic period, which can be used to support future studies on the health issues of migrants during any Covid-like pandemics. Moreover, this will also facilitate sharing of health-related information between states, so as to facilitate the implementation of effective treatment strategies for migrants from various places.

A major social issue among the migrants is their fear of losing their jobs, income and housing. On these matters also it is the governments that can help, as they can take unbiased actions in case of any exploitation or labour complaints regarding their right to stay and work. It will also be of help if assistance is provided to the migrants to form associations and cooperative societies to support the livelihood of those who have returned to their native lands.

In view of the need to effectively manage the health issues of the migrants, it is necessary to give special attention to the migrants’ housing facilities, as their present unhygienic living conditions are a breeding ground for innumerable diseases. Government initiatives like The Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan, must be properly implemented. Similarly, NGOs and aid agencies should be persuaded to raise funds to construct affordable housing units, which should be made available to migrants for minimal rents (PRSIndia, 2020 ). For migrants who are not able to afford even these minimum-rental houses, the relief camps must be kept open with better facilities for a longer period.

Another social issue as explained in the SWAN report is the irregular and uneven distribution of basic necessities among the migrants (Shahare, 2020 ). Hence, there is a need for a universal and uniform mechanism for the distribution of both financial aid and essential items such as grains, medicines, and water to the migrant families. In order to ensure efficient distribution of financial aid and basic necessities among the migrants, it will be a good idea to entrust this work to the respective “panchayats” (the Indian local administrative councils operating at the village, block and district levels) to register and enrol these migrants and distribute these resources to them as per their eligibilities. Since they are already facing severe financial difficulties, subsidies must be increased as opposed to initiatives like NITI Aayog (Gothoskar, 2021 ).

A major political issue faced by the migrants is the absence of a body or agency to represent them in the respective state governments of the migrated lands. Since the migrants are only entitled to vote in their home constituency, and not in their migrated states, their political clout is limited and therefore their voices are rarely heard (Deshingkar and Akter, 2009 ). In order to present their demands and concerns to the governmental agencies, they have to be a part of a legitimate political system, which is authorised to represent them in these migrated lands.

There is an immediate need to push for a pro-migrant attitude in the general society, a better acknowledgement of the contribution of the migrants to the society, and the adoption of a proactive role in educating them and safeguarding their labour rights. This study further emphasises the urgent need to revise the national migration policies, which should help assist and protect the migrants and the returnee migrants who are either travelling from or to the areas affected by the pandemic.

Limitations

One of the main limitations of the reviewed studies was the inability to make any alterations with the brief interactive interventions with the migrants as their distress levels were much higher. These studies were restricted due to being retrospective single-centre studies and so generalising these findings across all services are difficult.

This review limited its focus to migrant workers alone and passed over the similar issues faced by the emigrants who have returned to the country post lockdown and also on the immigrants who were stuck in the country due to the lockdown rules and regulations. These two groups also have undergone trauma along the same lines as the migrant workers group and, therefore, future studies focusing on these are highly relevant and in need.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study were derived from the databases (PubMed, Scopus, PsychNet, and Google Scholar) available in the public domain.

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Jesline, J., Romate, J., Rajkumar, E. et al. The plight of migrants during COVID-19 and the impact of circular migration in India: a systematic review. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 8 , 231 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00915-6

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Measurement and analysis of change in research scholars’ knowledge and attitudes toward statistics after PhD coursework

• Mariyamma Philip 1  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  512 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Knowledge of statistics is highly important for research scholars, as they are expected to submit a thesis based on original research as part of a PhD program. As statistics play a major role in the analysis and interpretation of scientific data, intensive training at the beginning of a PhD programme is essential. PhD coursework is mandatory in universities and higher education institutes in India. This study aimed to compare the scores of knowledge in statistics and attitudes towards statistics among the research scholars of an institute of medical higher education in South India at different time points of their PhD (i.e., before, soon after and 2–3 years after the coursework) to determine whether intensive training programs such as PhD coursework can change their knowledge or attitudes toward statistics.

One hundred and thirty research scholars who had completed PhD coursework in the last three years were invited by e-mail to be part of the study. Knowledge and attitudes toward statistics before and soon after the coursework were already assessed as part of the coursework module. Knowledge and attitudes towards statistics 2–3 years after the coursework were assessed using Google forms. Participation was voluntary, and informed consent was also sought.

Knowledge and attitude scores improved significantly subsequent to the coursework (i.e., soon after, percentage of change: 77%, 43% respectively). However, there was significant reduction in knowledge and attitude scores 2–3 years after coursework compared to the scores soon after coursework; knowledge and attitude scores have decreased by 10%, 37% respectively.

The study concluded that the coursework program was beneficial for improving research scholars’ knowledge and attitudes toward statistics. A refresher program 2–3 years after the coursework would greatly benefit the research scholars. Statistics educators must be empathetic to understanding scholars’ anxiety and attitudes toward statistics and its influence on learning outcomes.

Peer Review reports

A PhD degree is a research degree, and research scholars submit a thesis based on original research in their chosen field. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees are awarded in a wide range of academic disciplines, and the PhD students are usually referred as research scholars. A comprehensive understanding of statistics allows research scholars to add rigour to their research. This approach helps them evaluate the current practices and draw informed conclusions from studies that were undertaken to generate their own hypotheses and to design, analyse and interpret complex clinical decisions. Therefore, intensive training at the beginning of the PhD journey is essential, as intensive training in research methodology and statistics in the early stages of research helps scholars design and plan their studies efficiently.

The University Grants Commission of India has taken various initiatives to introduce academic reforms to higher education institutions in India and mandated in 2009 that coursework be treated as a prerequisite for PhD preparation and that a minimum of four credits be assigned to one or more courses on research methodology, which could cover areas such as quantitative methods, computer applications, and research ethics. UGC also clearly states that all candidates admitted to PhD programmes shall be required to complete the prescribed coursework during the initial two semesters [ 1 ]. National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) at Bangalore, a tertiary care hospital and medical higher education institute in South India, that trains students in higher education in clinical fields, also introduced coursework in the PhD program for research scholars from various backgrounds, such as basic, behavioral and neurosciences, as per the UGC mandate. Research scholars undertake coursework programs soon after admission, which consist of several modules that include research methodology and statistical software training, among others.

Most scholars approach a course in statistics with the prejudice that statistics is uninteresting, demanding, complex or involve much mathematics and, most importantly, it is not relevant to their career goals. They approach statistics with considerable apprehension and negative attitudes, probably because of their inability to grasp the relevance of the application of the methods in their fields of study. This could be resolved by providing sufficient and relevant examples of the application of statistical techniques from various fields of medical research and by providing hands-on experience to learn how these techniques are applied and interpreted on real data. Hence, research methodology and statistical methods and the application of statistical methods using software have been given much importance and are taught as two modules, named Research Methodology and Statistics and Statistical Software Training, at this institute of medical higher education that trains research scholars in fields as diverse as basic, behavioural and neurosciences. Approximately 50% of the coursework curriculum focused on these two modules. Research scholars were thus given an opportunity to understand the theoretical aspects of the research methodology and statistical methods. They were also given hands-on training on statistical software to analyse the data using these methods and to interpret the findings. The coursework program was designed in this specific manner, as this intensive training would enable the research scholars to design their research studies more effectively and analyse their data in a better manner.

It is important to study attitudes toward statistics because attitudes are known to impact the learning process. Also, most importantly, these scholars are expected to utilize the skills in statistics and research methods to design research projects or guide postgraduate students and research scholars in the near future. Several authors have assessed attitudes toward statistics among various students and examined how attitudes affect academic achievement, how attitudes are correlated with knowledge in statistics and how attitudes change after a training program. There are studies on attitudes toward statistics among graduate [ 2 , 3 , 4 ] and postgraduate [ 5 ] medical students, politics, sociology, ( 6 – 7 ) psychology [ 8 , 9 , 10 ], social work [ 11 ], and management students [ 12 ]. However, there is a dearth of related literature on research scholars, and there are only two studies on the attitudes of research scholars. In their study of doctoral students in education-related fields, Cook & Catanzaro (2022) investigated the factors that contribute to statistics anxiety and attitudes toward statistics and how anxiety, attitudes and plans for future research use are connected among doctoral students [ 13 ]. Another study by Sohrabi et al. (2018) on research scholars assessed the change in knowledge and attitude towards teaching and educational design of basic science PhD students at a Medical University after a two-day workshop on empowerment and familiarity with the teaching and learning principles [ 14 ]. There were no studies that assessed changes in the attitudes or knowledge of research scholars across the PhD training period or after intensive training programmes such as PhD coursework. Even though PhD coursework has been established in institutes of higher education in India for more than a decade, there are no published research on the effectiveness of coursework from Indian universities or institutes of higher education.

This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of PhD coursework and whether intensive training programs such as PhD coursework can influence the knowledge and attitudes toward statistics of research scholars. Additionally, it would be interesting to know if the acquired knowledge could be retained longer, especially 2–3 years after the coursework, the crucial time of PhD data analysis. Hence, this study compares the scores of knowledge in statistics and attitude toward statistics of the research scholars at different time points of their PhD training, i.e., before, soon after and 2–3 years after the coursework.

Participants

This is an observational study of single group with repeated assessments. The institute offers a three-month coursework program consisting of seven modules, the first module is ethics; the fifth is research methodology and statistics; and the last is neurosciences. The study was conducted in January 2020. All research scholars of the institute who had completed PhD coursework in the last three years were considered for this study ( n  = 130). Knowledge and attitudes toward statistics before and soon after the coursework module were assessed as part of the coursework program. They were collected on the first and last day of the program respectively. The author who was also the coordinator of the research methodology and statistics module of the coursework have obtained the necessary permission to use the data for this study. The scholars invited to be part of the study by e-mail. Knowledge and attitude towards statistics 2–3 years after the coursework were assessed online using Google forms. They were also administered a semi structured questionnaire to elicit details about the usefulness of coursework. Participation was voluntary, and consent was also sought online. The confidentiality of the data was assured. Data were not collected from research scholars of Biostatistics or from research scholars who had more than a decade of experience or who had been working in the institute as faculty, assuming that their scores could be higher and could bias the findings. This non funded study was reviewed and approved by the Institute Ethics Committee.

Instruments

Knowledge in Statistics was assessed by a questionnaire prepared by the author and was used as part of the coursework evaluation. The survey included 25 questions that assessed the knowledge of statistics on areas such as descriptive statistics, sampling methods, study design, parametric and nonparametric tests and multivariate analyses. Right answers were assigned a score of 1, and wrong answers were assigned a score of 0. Total scores ranged from 0 to 25. Statistics attitudes were assessed by the Survey of Attitudes toward Statistics (SATS) scale. The SATS is a 36-item scale that measures 6 domains of attitudes towards statistics. The possible range of scores for each item is between 1 and 7. The total score was calculated by dividing the summed score by the number of items. Higher scores indicate more positive attitudes. The SAT-36 is a copyrighted scale, and researchers are allowed to use it only with prior permission. ( 15 – 16 ) The author obtained permission for use in the coursework evaluation and this study. A semi structured questionnaire was also used to elicit details about the usefulness of coursework.

Statistical analysis

Descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, number and percentages were used to describe the socio-demographic data. General Linear Model Repeated Measures of Analysis of variance was used to compare knowledge and attitude scores across assessments. Categorical data from the semi structured questionnaire are presented as percentages. All the statistical tests were two-tailed, and a p value < 0.05 was set a priori as the threshold for statistical significance. IBM SPSS (28.0) was used to analyse the data.

One hundred and thirty research scholars who had completed coursework (CW) in the last 2–3 years were considered for the study. These scholars were sent Google forms to assess their knowledge and attitudes 2–3 years after coursework. 81 scholars responded (62%), and 4 scholars did not consent to participate in the study. The data of 77 scholars were merged with the data obtained during the coursework program (before and soon after CW). Socio-demographic characteristics of the scholars are presented in Table  1 .

The age of the respondents ranged from 23 to 36 years, with an average of 28.7 years (3.01), and the majority of the respondents were females (65%). Years of experience (i.e., after masters) before joining a PhD programme ranged from 0.5 to 9 years, and half of them had less than three years of experience before joining the PhD programme (median-3). More than half of those who responded were research scholars from the behavioural sciences (55%), while approximately 30% were from the basic sciences (29%).

General Linear Model Repeated Measures of Analysis of variance was used to compare the knowledge and attitude scores of scholars before, soon after and 2–3 after the coursework (will now be referred as “later the CW”), and the results are presented below (Table  2 ; Fig.  1 ).

Comparison of knowledge and attitude scores across the assessments. Later the CW – 2–3 years after the coursework

The scores for knowledge and attitude differed significantly across time. Scores of knowledge and attitude increased soon after the coursework; the percentage of change was 77% and 43% respectively. However, significant reductions in knowledge and attitude scores were observed 2–3 years after the coursework compared to scores soon after the coursework. The reduction was higher for attitude scores; knowledge and attitude scores have decreased by 10% and 37% respectively. The change in scores across assessments is evident from the graph, and clearly the effect size is higher for attitude than knowledge.

The scores of knowledge or attitude before the coursework did not significantly differ with respect to gender or age or were not correlated with years of experience. Hence, they were not considered as covariates in the above analysis.

A semi structured questionnaire with open ended questions was also administered to elicit in-depth information about the usefulness of the coursework programme, in which they were also asked to self- rate their knowledge. The data were mostly categorical or narratives. Research scholars’ self-rated knowledge scores (on a scale of 0–10) also showed similar changes; knowledge improved significantly and was retained even after the training (Fig.  2 ).

Self-rated knowledge scores of research scholars over time. Later the CW – 2–3 years after the coursework

The response to the question “ How has coursework changed your attitude toward statistics?”, is presented in Fig.  3 . The responses were Yes, positively, Yes - Negatively, No change – still apprehensive, No change – still appreciate, No change – still hate statistics. The majority of the scholars (70%) reported a positive change in their attitude toward statistics. Moreover, none of the scholars reported negative changes. Approximately 9% of the scholars reported that they were still apprehensive about statistics or hate statistics after the coursework.

How has coursework changed your attitude toward statistics?

Those scholars who reported that they were apprehensive about statistics or hate statistics noted the complexity of the subject, lack of clarity, improper instructions and fear of mathematics as major reasons for their attitude. Some responses are listed below.

“The statistical concepts were not taught in an understandable manner from the UG level” , “I am weak in mathematical concepts. The equations and formulae in statistics scare me”. “Lack of knowledge about the importance of statistics and fear of mathematical equations”. “The preconceived notion that Statistics is difficult to learn” . “In most of the places, it is not taught properly and conceptual clarity is not focused on, and because of this an avoidance builds up, which might be a reason for the negative attitude”.

Majority of the scholars (92%) felt that coursework has helped them in their PhD, and they were happy to recommend it for other research scholars (97%). The responses of the scholars to the question “ How was coursework helpful in your PhD journey ?”, are listed below.

“Course work gave a fair idea on various things related to research as well as statistics” . “Creating the best design while planning methodology, which is learnt form course work, will increase efficiency in completing the thesis, thereby making it faster”. “Course work give better idea of how to proceed in many areas like literature search, referencing, choosing statistical methods, and learning about research procedures”. “Course work gave a good idea of research methodology, biostatistics and ethics. This would help in writing a better protocol and a better thesis”. “It helps us to plan our research well and to formulate, collect and plan for analysis”. “It makes people to plan their statistical analysis well in advance” .

This study evaluated the effectiveness of the existing coursework programme in an institution of higher medical education, and investigated whether the coursework programme benefits research scholars by improving their knowledge of statistics and attitudes towards statistics. The study concluded that the coursework program was beneficial for improving scholars’ knowledge about statistics and attitudes toward statistics.

Unlike other studies that have assessed attitudes toward statistics, the study participants in this study were research scholars. Research scholars need extensive training in statistics, as they need to apply statistical tests and use statistical reasoning in their research thesis, and in their profession to design research projects or their future student dissertations. Notably, no studies have assessed the attitudes or knowledge of research scholars in statistics either across the PhD training period or after intensive statistics training programs. However, the findings of this study are consistent with the findings of a study that compared the knowledge and attitudes toward teaching and education design of PhD students after a two-day educational course and instructional design workshop [ 14 ].

Statistics educators need not only impart knowledge but they should also motivate the learners to appreciate the role of statistics and to continue to learn the quantitative skills that is needed in their professional lives. Therefore, the role of learners’ attitudes toward statistics requires special attention. Since PhD coursework is possibly a major contributor to creating a statistically literate research community, scholars’ attitudes toward statistics need to be considered important and given special attention. Passionate and engaging statistics educators who have adequate experience in illustrating relatable examples could help scholars feel less anxious and build competence and better attitudes toward statistics. Statistics educators should be aware of scholars’ anxiety, fears and attitudes toward statistics and about its influence on learning outcomes and further interest in the subject.

Strengths and limitations

Analysis of changes in knowledge and attitudes scores across various time points of PhD training is the major strength of the study. Additionally, this study evaluates the effectiveness of intensive statistical courses for research scholars in terms of changes in knowledge and attitudes. This study has its own limitations: the data were collected through online platforms, and the nonresponse rate was about 38%. Ability in mathematics or prior learning experience in statistics, interest in the subject, statistics anxiety or performance in coursework were not assessed; hence, their influence could not be studied. The reliability and validity of the knowledge questionnaire have not been established at the time of this study. However, author who had prepared the questionnaire had ensured questions from different areas of statistics that were covered during the coursework, it has also been used as part of the coursework evaluation. Despite these limitations, this study highlights the changes in attitudes and knowledge following an intensive training program. Future research could investigate the roles of age, sex, mathematical ability, achievement or performance outcomes and statistics anxiety.

The study concluded that a rigorous and intensive training program such as PhD coursework was beneficial for improving knowledge about statistics and attitudes toward statistics. However, the significant reduction in attitude and knowledge scores after 2–3 years of coursework indicates that a refresher program might be helpful for research scholars as they approach the analysis stage of their thesis. Statistics educators must develop innovative methods to teach research scholars from nonstatistical backgrounds. They also must be empathetic to understanding scholars’ anxiety, fears and attitudes toward statistics and to understand its influence on learning outcomes and further interest in the subject.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the participants of the study and peers and experts who examined the content of the questionnaire for their time and effort.

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This study used data already collected data (before and soon after coursework). The data pertaining to knowledge and attitude towards statistics 2–3 years after coursework were collected from research scholars through the online survey platform Google forms. The participants were invited to participate in the survey through e-mail. The study was explained in detail, and participation in the study was completely voluntary. Informed consent was obtained online in the form of a statement of consent. The confidentiality of the data was assured, even though identifiable personal information was not collected. This non-funded study was reviewed and approved by NIMHANS Institute Ethics Committee (No. NIMHANS/21st IEC (BS&NS Div.)

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Philip, M. Measurement and analysis of change in research scholars’ knowledge and attitudes toward statistics after PhD coursework. BMC Med Educ 24 , 512 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05487-y

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Four UW–Madison students receive Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships

Four UW–Madison students have been awarded fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) and the Mellon Foundation to support their innovative and creative dissertation research.

The Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships support doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences with up to $50,000 including funds for research, training, professional development, and mentorship. The four fellows at UW–Madison are among 45 overall, selected from a pool of more than 700 applicants. They are:

• Kuhelika Ghosh , doctoral candidate in English with a minor in Culture, History, and Environment
• Fauzi Moro , doctoral student in History with a minor in African Cultural Studies
• Anika M. Rice , doctoral student in Geography with a minor in Community-Engaged Scholarship
• Vignesh Ramachandran , doctoral student in Geography

Read more about each Mellon/ACLS Fellow below.

Kuhelika Ghosh

Ghosh’s dissertation explores multispecies gardens in Anglophone Caribbean literature and culture from the 1960s to the present, bringing together postcolonial studies and ecocritical approaches.

“I am interested in the ways that Afro-diasporic women’s gardening practices in the Caribbean region often engage with nonhuman rhythms relating to seasonal time, harvest and fallow, and the lives of insects, birds, and other species,” she said.

Through this work, Ghosh demonstrates how human gardening practices and the rhythms of many different species found in gardens of various types relate to postcolonial food politics and responses to empire. Ghosh explained that the original kitchen and market gardens began during plantation slavery as provisions grounds, which were plots of land set apart from plantations for enslaved people to grow their own food.

The project uses literary texts, visual culture, little-studied archival materials, and physical gardens to create new theories about key problems in cultural study, including voice, rhythm, and spatiality. Ghosh takes an interdisciplinary approach that crosses through literary studies, environmental studies, history, and visual cultures, which gives her dissertation the boundary-pushing trait the Mellon/ACLS fellowship seeks to encourage.

“By focusing on small-scale cultivation, women’s care work, and ‘inconsequential’ multispecies creatures, my project sheds light on the many minor figures in the postcolonial Caribbean that have the power to create change in food justice movements,” Ghosh said.

She also said agricultural scholarship tends to be biased toward men’s labor, while women make up a significant portion of the agricultural labor force in the Caribbean – especially through domestic spaces like backyard gardens. She seeks to highlight Caribbean women’s perspectives and voices around the topics of food justice and postcolonial politics.

“I hope my research brings to light the importance of gardens as a feminist practice, postcolonial agricultural strategy, as well as a form of art in itself,” Ghosh said. “Gardens are often seen as ‘minor’ in the field of the environmental humanities, but my dissertation attempts to demonstrate that although a garden may be minor in terms of area, it has political, ecological, and social significances for marginalized populations in the Caribbean as well as in other postcolonial spaces around the globe.”

Fauziyatu Moro (Fauzi)

Three miles north of Accra’s central business district, the city’s largest migrant enclave, Nima, houses migrants from various African countries. Moro explained that in the nine decades of Nima’s existence, its residents have embodied a distinct Afro-cosmopolitan identity that has thus far gone unnoticed by scholars of African urban history, migration, and the African diaspora.

Moro’s dissertation and an open-access digital archive emerging from her work theorizes Nima as an internal African diaspora and an unprecedented site of pan-African consciousness. This is facilitated by migrants’ urban leisure which speaks to an ethos of global Black solidarity, Moro said.

“By centering intra-Africa migrants’ social imaginations and amusements in the making of Accra’s pan-African and transnational history, my dissertation offers a glimpse into the possibilities of researching migration and urbanization in Africa through the category of leisure as opposed to migrant labor,” Moro said. This challenges scholars to reassess assumptions about working-class intra-Africa migrants, while introducing ideas about migrants’ roles as key historical actors in creating and socially transforming African urban spaces, she added.

Moro’s project centers on migrants’ narratives, social imaginations, and visual and material culture, creating a retelling of the history of Accra. This is underscored by multi-disciplinary methods including oral sources, state and migrants’ personal archives, print media, and literary and visual analysis.

“Migrants’ oral histories and personal archives are particularly crucial to my methodology because they anchor the counter-narrative I seek to provide about Accra’s intra-Africa migrants whose lives and experiences often come to us through the skewed lens of crime, poverty and/or chaos. My research is, thus, undergirded by a quest to make visible the histories of Africa’s urban migrants as told in their own voices,” Moro said.

Anika M. Rice

“In this context, how families leverage landholdings for migration is central to livelihoods, agrarian change, debt, and situated meanings of land,” Rice said.

Land access is often left out of discussions about the root causes of migration in Central America, Rice explained. Her research provides a grounding point that takes seriously the role of land access and how land is used in the decisions that families make about migration.

Rice will collaborate with groups of predominantly Maya K’iche’ women with migrant family members who seek to understand possibilities for collective resistance against the structural and institutional impacts of migration. These groups are part of the Jesuit Migration Network‘s programming in Guatemala.

“I intend for my research to center the agency of K’iche’ women and other marginalized folks in communities of origin, and affirm the right to migrate with dignity,” she said.

Rice said that while there has been important work on transnational migration in host and transit countries, as well as on the intersections of migration and agrarian change, there is limited attention to the gendered impacts of migration in communities of origin and how migration is tied to land access. Her dissertation will use community-based research approaches to engage with the experiences of women with migrant family members, showing their strategies for survival and persistence.

Previous scholarship has often focused on the head of household and on remittances sent home from migrants. Rice’s methods will integrate household surveys with ethnographic work that engages with how multiple family members in different social positions relate to and may leverage specific parcels of land for migration.

“Elevating voices from communities of origin, with a focus on how women are organizing, is central to the co-production of knowledge on social relations, mobility and the environment,” Rice said.

Vignesh Ramachandran

Scientific management, also known as Taylorism, focuses on economic efficiency and labor productivity. Ramachandran’s research focuses on how digital Taylorism – such as automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and algorithm-based management practices – affects delivery workers. Ramachandran uses a worker’s inquiry methodology that emphasizes collaborative, action-oriented research conducted alongside workers to document the effects of digital Taylorism.

“Through this methodology, this project outlines the racializing and disciplining effects of algorithms in shaping the lives of immigrant delivery workers,” Ramachandran said. “In doing so, it also hopes to discover how digital Taylorism produces residual after-effects, like solidarity and care, that propose other modes of social life under the managerial control of algorithms and digital technology.”

Innovations in automation and AI are constantly changing the terrain of labor and work, Ramachandran said. Many of those innovations are implemented in the gig economy and push workers to work harder and faster, while corporations increase their profits, he said. His dissertation challenges “disembodied” descriptions of technological innovation by centering perspectives of immigrant delivery workers.

“Many working class immigrants in New York City have been doubly subjected to the effects of imperialism—faced with austerity, militarism, and climate crisis in their home countries, and border violence, policing, and structural poverty in the U.S.,” Ramachandran said. “In this context, my research challenges race-neutral accounts of the gig economy by situating exploitation in the gig economy within the long [duration] of racial capitalism and imperialism, and by documenting stories of immigrant worker resistance amidst this violence.”

Ramachandran said his approach to dissertation research “re-introduces the workers’ inquiry as an innovative form of collaborative research that academics can undertake with workers.”

“Whereas companies like Uber, Grubhub, and Doordash spend millions on research and development to maximize profit in the gig economy, the workers’ inquiry turns to the experiences and situated knowledge of workers to document and contest exploitation in their workplace,” he explained. “In this case, this project builds on over two years of community-engaged research with undocumented South Asian delivery workers and community organizations to understand how resistance to exploitation in the gig economy takes place at the intersection of digital technology, labor, and everyday immigrant life. Moreover, the project develops the importance of collaborative, community engaged methodologies in the broader humanities and social sciences.”

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