-Down to Earth Communication between MIGrant workers, their family members has come to a standstill April 14 usually marks the traditional new year for many communities in India. This year, amid muted celebrations, the Union government launched a system to connect thousands of schools online. This when thousands of MIGrant workers didn’t have enough money to talk on their phones. Welcome to India’s digital divide — the new, improved post-COVID-19 lockdown version. Amid talks...

-The Hindu Business Line The government is seen doing very little to mitigate the woes of the thousands of MIGrant workers who have been pushed to the brink of starvation by the lockdown * Post the Covid-19 lockdown, unorganised sector MIGrant labourers have been unable to afford even two square meals a day * 78 per cent of workers surveyed said they had less than ₹300 * Economic relief packages such as PMGKY have...

-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...

-The Telegraph The pandemic has given surveillance tools legitimacy in the eyes of civil society which at other times MIGht have been more concerned about privacy issues Among the “seven” to-dos that Prime Minister Narendra Modi listed for the country on April 13 while announcing the extension of a nationwide lockdown was a call for citizens to download the ‘Aarogya Setu’ app. It would help “prevent the spread of [the] corona infection,”...

-The Hindu A regime of social policy must be installed to meet the basic needs of all citizens at all times – not only during pandemics The current pandemic has forced us to think about the plight of workers in our country. While the virus has demonstrated the enormous value of health workers, it has also enhanced public awareness of the pivotal role of MIGrant workers in our economy. We have been...