Unfolding the Impact of COVID-19 on Reverse Migrants in Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

Reverse migration was the trending issue in several news articles and channels during the pandemic. The authors attempt to investigate migrants’ sensitivity during COVID-19. Reverse migrants are sensitive to crucial aspects that bother them during their reverse migration such as mental stress, social issues, transportation issues, job loss, and income loss. The Government of India launched several initiatives to help the reverse migrants, but it is not reaching the migrant people adequately. Hence, in this article, authors critically analyzed the Indian Government’s commitment to the post-return situation and sensitivity toward the rural reverse migrants.

The Psychological, Social, and Economic Impacts of COVID-19 on Nepali Migrant Workers

“…In addition to psychological impacts, COVID-19 posed social challenges for migrant workers. Some of the challenges are job loss, income loss, transportation problems, mental stress, and social discrimination ( Maiti et al, 2022 ). Pregnant returning migrant women represented a group that was heavily impacted at the social level.…”

COVID-19 and Differential Income Recovery: Survey Evidence from Indian Punjab

“…These restrictions along with the fear of infection led to a massive decline in economic activity causing a significant fall in income and employment (Gopinath, 2020;International Labour Organization (ILO), 2021). The economic contraction and the lockdown policies have impacted the vulnerable groups the most (Ambagudia, 2022;Azeez et al, 2021;Breman, 2020;Buffel et al, 2021;Chee, 2020;Kumar et al, 2021;Maiti et al, 2022). There are concerns that it may significantly dent the fight against poverty, food insecurity and illiteracy (Laborde et al, 2020;Lakner et al, 2020Lakner et al, , 2021United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2020;Valensisi, 2020).…”

“…While the fall in economic activity negatively affected almost everyone, the vulnerable sections suffered the most. Migrant labour was among the hardest hit by the lockdown (Agoramoorthy and Hsu, 2021; Maiti et al, 2022; Ray and Subramanian, 2020). The sudden announcement left them stranded and without work.…”