Women are impacted whether because of their gender, responsibilities as caregivers, or as members of disadvantaged castes and communities.ĬOVID-19 has massively impacted this group of workers. Living hand to mouth, their loss of livelihoods has led to a lack of money to pay rents or pay for food. Nearly half of workers are not eligible for social security benefits.ĭaily-wage workers are particularly vulnerable, with limited or no access to social security and most living in poverty. However, it is estimated that more than 90% of working people in India are engaged in the informal economy, with states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar accounting for more than 80% of workers in this sector.Ī recent government labour force survey estimated that more than 71% of people with a regular salary working in non-agricultural industries had no written job contract. While estimates abound, there is no proper data collection system in place to accurately record temporary, seasonal and circular migration patterns.
![pharaoh game workers arent returning food pharaoh game workers arent returning food](https://gamefabrique.com/storage/screenshots/pc/pharaoh-19.png)
One key challenge is the lack of robust data on the scale of internal migration.
![pharaoh game workers arent returning food pharaoh game workers arent returning food](https://www.teoalida.com/caesar3/Lindum-2008.png)
The complete failure of the government to anticipate the needs of this group, and the subsequent distress caused, has made visible a large workforce who experience precarity of work and often live hand to mouth. The shocking images of migrants forced to walk in desperation showed the enormity of the crisis as well as some of the challenges posed by an extended lockdown in India where so many people live hand to mouth and cannot afford not to work. Those who were able to make it home found, in some instances, villages refusing entry because of fears of transmission. With transportation systems initially shut down, many had no recourse to travel options back to homes and villages, resulting in harrowing journeys home. Within India, an estimated 40 million internal migrant workers, largely in the informal economy, were severely impacted by the government’s COVID-19 lockdown.
![pharaoh game workers arent returning food pharaoh game workers arent returning food](https://i.imgur.com/uGLgu.jpg)
The World Bank estimates that the magnitude of internal migration is about two‐and‐a‐half times that of international migration. Photo by Bharat Bhushan/Hindustan Times via Getty Images. Migrant workers plant paddy in a field at Jhandi village in Patiala, India.