Mobility Humanities

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has caused serious disruptions globally, but it has had particularly punishing impacts on the lives of internal migrants in India. Many internal migrants live on subsistence wages in metropolitan cities and relatively prosperous Indian provinces such as Maharashtra, Gujrat, Panjab and Delhi, earning barely enough to get by, and having no additional resources to support themselves during the lockdowns. Confronted with the harsh reality of a lockdown, shortage of food and job loss, millions of migrants started to leave their workplace for their native homes in the early days of the pandemic. Some governments tried to stop them from travelling during the lockdown, but failed to convince them. In a democratic society, including India, it is impossible to force people into compliance if they do not believe in the usefulness of a policy, feeling compelled to defy it. Recognising that the pandemic has brought untold suffering to poor migrants and vulnerable sections of society, I argue that policy makers must 1) take effective measures to provide adequate material and moral support to migrants, 2) making sure that their rights and well-being are respected, and 3) that going forward, development goals are reconceptualised ethically to strike a reasonable balance between economic activity and the rights of migrants.