-TheWire.in Ranabir Samaddar, director of the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, speaks about the factors behind the migrants’ desperation to reach home and the dynamics of the visibility and invisibility of migrant labour. With the abrupt imposition of the lockdown aimed at arresting the spread of the novel coronavirus, and prospects of earning a livelihood in cities and urban areas drying up, India stood witness to a mass exodus of migrant workers at...

Most reports and studies by official agencies, international think tanks and private entities indicate the cataclysmic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy and society. They anticipate that lockdowns imposed by various countries across the globe to reduce the exponential diffusion of COVID-19 (i.e. for flattening the curve by social distancing and quarantines) would adversely affect economic growth and disrupt supply chains in most sectors, on top of causing...

-The Indian Express Prime Minister demanded discipline and sacrifice from the people, while offering no measures to alleviate distress of those who have lost their dignity and livelihoods. Millions of migrant workers, and other vulnerable groups, have lost their livelihoods, income security, and sense of dignity in three short weeks. They knew that they were vulnerable to the virus, but for them, the cure of an extended lockdown is already worse than...

-Scroll.in Food distress is acute among migrant and working-class families. Bhalswa is home to Delhi’s largest open garbage dump – and working-class families who can’t afford to live in a less toxic place. Around noon on Saturday, a queue snaked around a bend in the road leading into the neighbourhood. Food was being distributed inside a community hall by the Shri Shiv Sevak Delhi Mahashakti Group, an organisation that runs kitchens during...

-The Indian Express Coronavirus (COVID-19): The report released by a volunteer group has pointed to the scale of the hunger crisis and economic distress among migrant workers stranded in cities. WITH the nationwide lockdown extended till May 3, a report released by a volunteer group has pointed to the scale of the hunger crisis and economic distress among migrant workers stranded in cities. Since March 27, two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi...