Manufactured maladies: lives and livelihoods of migrant workers during COVID-19 lockdown in India
Open accessAbstract
The 68 days of lockdown in India, as a measure to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, unlike any other in the world. In the first half of the lockdown, migrant workers were stranded with no food and money with severe restrictions on movement when a mass exodus of workers back to their hometowns and villages began. In the second half, the workers' woes were compounded with a series of chaotic travel orders and gross mismanagement of the repatriation process. In this article, we draw on the work of Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN) with more analysis and perspective. SWAN was a spontaneous relief effort that emerged soon after the lockdown was announced in March 2020. In addition to providing relief, SWAN concurrently documented the experiences of over 36,000 workers through the lockdown. We highlight the inadequacy of the government and judicial response to the migrant worker crisis. We present quantitative data elaborating the profile of workers that reached out to SWAN, the extent of hunger, loss of livelihoods and income. We also present qualitative insights based on interactions with workers and discuss multiple, non-exhaustive, dimensions of vulnerability to which migrant workers were exposed.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Stringent lockdowns in India helped slow COVID-19 spread but caused severe economic and social hardships, with GDP contracting 24% in Q2 2020 and 7.3% for 2020.
“Stringent lockdowns in India helped to slow the spread of COVID-19 but brought about severe economic and social hardships: gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 24% for the second quarter of 2020 and 7·3% for the year 2020.”
From The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as [325]
An estimated 120 million jobs were lost for the duration of the lockdown in India, and millions of migrant workers returned home under severe distress.
“An estimated 120 million jobs were lost for the duration of the lockdown, and millions of migrant workers returned to their home villages under severe distress”
From The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as [325]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Multiple imputation by chained equations: what is it and how does it work?
Azur, M. J., Stuart, E. A., Frangakis, C., & Leaf, P. J. (2011) · International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1002/mpr.329 · Cited by 3,542 · see citing works
An uncertain glory: India and its contradictions
(2014) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.51-3948 · Cited by 803 · see citing works
Poverty and Inequality in India: A Re-Examination*
Deaton, A., & Drèze, J. (2005) · SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd eBooks · doi:10.4135/9788132102144.n7 · Cited by 614 · see citing works
Drèze, J., & SEN, A. (2013) · Princeton University Press eBooks · doi:10.2307/j.ctt32bcbm · Cited by 137 · see citing works
A critique of the Indian government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Ghosh, J. (2020) · Journal of Industrial and Business Economics · doi:10.1007/s40812-020-00170-x · Cited by 114 · see citing works
India’s lockdown: an interim report
Ray, D., & Subramanian, S. (2020) · Indian Economic Review · doi:10.1007/s41775-020-00094-2 · Cited by 103 · see citing works
India's Lockdown: An Interim Report
Ray, D., & Subramanian, S. (2020) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-981-16-8472-2_2 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Government of India Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
Bhawan, S. P., Marg, S., Buttan, R., & Singh, L. (2014) · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Gaikwad, N., & Nellis, G. (2020) · American Journal of Political Science · doi:10.1111/ajps.12548 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Contribution of the Unorganised sector to GDP Report of the Sub Committee of a NCEUS Task ForcePreprint
Nceus, N. (2009) · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- Jayadev, A., S. Motiram, and V. Vakulabharanam. 2007. Patterns of Wealth Disparities in India during the Liberalisation Era. Economic & Political Weekly 42 (38): 3853–3863.
- Kejriwal, S. 2020. Is Jan Dhan Money Actually Reaching People? India Development Review, May 6, 2020. https://idronline.org/is-jan-dhan-money-actually-reaching-people/.
- Srivastava R Labour Migration in India: Recent Trends, Patterns and Policy Issues Indian Journal of Labour Economics 2011 54 3 411 440
- Srivastava R Social Protection for Workers in India: Struggling for Basic Rights under Increasing Labour Market Flexibility Indian Journal of Labour Economics 2012 55 2 177 199
- World Health Organization. 2016. WHO Recommendations on Antenatal Care for a Positive Pregnancy Experience. https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/maternal_perinatal_health/anc-positive-pregnancy-experience/en/. 28079998
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic
Sachs, J. D., Karim, S. S. A., Aknin, L., Allen, J., Brosbøl, K., Colombo, F., Barron, G. C., Espinosa, M. F., Gaspar, V., Gaviria, A., et al. (2022) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(22)01585-9 · Cited by 842 · see citing works
Migrant workers occupational health research: an OMEGA-NET working group position paper
Aktaş, E., Bergbom, B., Godderis, L., Kreshpaj, B., Marinov, M., Mateș, D., McElvenny, D. M., Mehlum, I. S., Milenkova, V. G., Nena, E., et al. (2021) · International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health · doi:10.1007/s00420-021-01803-x · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Singh, G. (2021) · Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1177/02537176211044802 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Rahaman, M., Roy, A., Chouhan, P., Das, K. C., & Rana, M. J. (2021) · Indian Journal of Labour Economics · doi:10.1007/s41027-021-00327-9 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Indian Migrant Workers’ Experience During the COVID-19 Pandemic Nationwide Lockdown
Kumar, N., Udah, H., Francis, A., Singh, S., & Wilson, A. (2021) · Journal of Asian and African Studies · doi:10.1177/00219096211046278 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Contradictions and Crisis in the World of Work: Informality, Precarity and the Pandemic
Kesar, S., Bhattacharya, S., & Banerjee, L. (2022) · Development and Change · doi:10.1111/dech.12733 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Allard, J., Jagnani, M., Neggers, Y., Pande, R., Schaner, S. G., & Moore, C. T. (2022) · EClinicalMedicine · doi:10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101631 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Can driver supply disruption alleviate driver shortages? A systems approach
Chandiran, P., Ramasubramaniam, M., Venkatesh, V. G., Mani, V., & Shi, Y. (2022) · Transport Policy · doi:10.1016/j.tranpol.2022.10.002 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Husain, Z., Ghosh, S., & Dutta, M. (2022) · Food Policy · doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2022.102372 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Sensitivity of seasonal migration to climatic variability in central India
Choksi, P., Singh, D., Singh, J., Mondal, P., Nagendra, H., Urpelainen, J., & DeFries, R. (2021) · Environmental Research Letters · doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac046f · Cited by 11 · see citing works
The protracted exodus of migrants from Hyderabad in the time of COVID-19
Sapra, I., & Nayak, B. P. (2021) · Journal of Social and Economic Development · doi:10.1007/s40847-021-00155-z · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Internal Migration and Development in India
Datta, A., & Rajan, S. I. (2024) · Indian Journal of Human Development · doi:10.1177/09737030241251865 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
COVID-19 pandemic, losses of livelihoods and uneven recovery in Pune, India
Mittal, N., Steinert, J., & Vollmer, S. (2023) · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · doi:10.1057/s41599-023-02343-0 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
The ‘wall': reflections on youth aspiration, education and social mobility in India
Harriss, J. (2024) · South Asian History and Culture · doi:10.1080/19472498.2024.2338598 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Shannon, G. D., Basu, P., Peters, L. E. R., Clark‐Ginsberg, A., Delgado, T. M. H., Gope, R., Guanilo, M., Kelman, I., Noelli, L., Meriläinen, E., et al. (2023) · The Lancet Planetary Health · doi:10.1016/s2542-5196(23)00193-6 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Nasir, S., Shahnawaz, M., & Giménez‐Llort, L. (2022) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs12100348 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Food and communities in post-COVID-19 cities: Case of India
Varma, S., & Sutradhar, R. K. (2023) · Urban Governance · doi:10.1016/j.ugj.2023.03.002 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
The continued effects of COVID-19 on the lives and livelihoods of vegetable farmers in India
Kumar, S. S., Schreinemachers, P., Pal, A. A., Manickam, R., Nair, R. M., Srinivasan, R., & Harris, J. (2023) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0279026 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Soumya, A. V., Dhamija, S., Davis, S., Samudra, M., Pooja, V., Gupta, N., Khan, A., Chaudhari, B., Chaudhury, S., & Saldanha, D. (2024) · Industrial Psychiatry Journal · doi:10.4103/ipj.ipj_314_23 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Bangladesh 2019-2020: Issues of democracy, disasters, development
Tieri, S. (2019) · ASIA MAIOR The Journal of the Italian think tank on Asia founded by Giorgio Borsa in 1989 · doi:10.52056/9788833138282/12 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Mookerjee, D., & Roy, S. (2023) · Frontiers in Communication · doi:10.3389/fcomm.2022.969879 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Ramana, A. B., Singh, S., Rupani, M. P., Mukherjee, R., & Mohapatra, A. (2023) · Work · doi:10.3233/wor-220127 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Kundu, S., & Debnath, A. (2024) · Current Research Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities · doi:10.12944/crjssh.7.1.04 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Randolph, G. F. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197769119.001.0001 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Santos, N. J. C., & Ray, S. (2022) · Community quality-of-life and well-being · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-98152-5_12 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Air Pollutants During COVID-19 Lockdown Period in India
Vignesh, K. S., & Venkatasubramanian, P. (2021) · Journal of Disaster Research · doi:10.20965/jdr.2021.p0088 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
COVID-19 lockdown and distressed reverse migration enhance human-tiger conflict in Sundarban
Chowdhury, A. N., Roy, S., & Brahma, A. (2022) · Indian Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.4103/indianjpsychiatry.indianjpsychiatry_997_21 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Route to prospects or distress?: COVID-19 and migrants’ employment in India
Sahu, T. N., Maity, S., & Agarwala, V. (2024) · Community Work & Family · doi:10.1080/13668803.2024.2412701 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Sanchez, A., Sabri, S. E., Khan, N., Qaisar, A., & Wong, J. (2024) · IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC) · doi:10.1109/ghtc62424.2024.10771516 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Ghose, A., & Haldar, S. K. (2025) · Journal of Quantitative Economics · doi:10.1007/s40953-025-00453-x · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Kumar, V., & Pradhan, K. C. (2025) · Journal of Population Research · doi:10.1007/s12546-025-09385-y · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Mobilizing Digital Volunteers to Support Underserved Communities in India During COVID-19 Lockdowns
Mehta, D., Prasad, V., Chitta, T., Naik, N. S., Prakash, A., & Vashistha, A. (2022) · ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (COMPASS) · doi:10.1145/3530190.3534827 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Theorizing Strategic Narrative Disruption: Local Non-State Actors and India’s COVID-19 Narrative
Barthwal-Datta, M. (2023) · Global Studies Quarterly · doi:10.1093/isagsq/ksad053 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Rout, S. K., Meher, A., Behera, P., Broucker, G. D., & Kadam, S. (2023) · Journal of Public Health Research · doi:10.1177/22799036231208425 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Migrant Labourers’ COVID-19 Lockdown Experience: Emerging Trajectory of Political Expression
Maskara, M. (2021) · Journal of Migration Affairs · doi:10.36931/jma.2020.3.2.52-71
Mehta, R. (2022) · Voices in Bioethics · doi:10.52214/vib.v8i.9452
Kishan, K. (2022) · International Journal of Health Sciences · doi:10.53730/ijhs.v6ns5.9247
Approaching to Social Security of Immigrant Workers Through Research in Vietnam and Other Countries
Quyet, P. V., & Hue, P. V. (2022) · VNU Journal of Science Policy and Management Studies · doi:10.25073/2588-1116/vnupam.4382
Angoori, S., Dhankhar, S., & Kumar, S. (2022) · SOCIO ECONOMY AND POLICY STUDIES · doi:10.26480/seps.02.2022.61.66
Economics: Where People Matter
Roy, A. (2023) · India studies in business and economics · doi:10.1007/978-981-99-4008-0_14
An Older Female Migrant in the Micro-entrepreneurial Sector
Borde, P. S. (2024) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-68127-2_565-1
Inequality and the Agrarian World
Kumar, R. (2024) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-97417-6_54-1
Inequality and the Agrarian World
Kumar, R. (2024) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-32152-8_54
India’s COVID-19 Lockdown: A Kaleidoscopic Interrogation
Mishra, A. K. (2025) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1057/978-1-349-96080-4_2
Pandemic and Its Predicament: Migrants’ Melancholy During India’s National Lockdown
Mishra, A. K. (2025) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1057/978-1-349-96080-4_3
Deconstructing the Discourse: Reverse Migration During COVID-19
Mishra, A. K. (2025) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1057/978-1-349-96080-4_1
Access to social security policies for migrant workers: A case study in Hanoi, Vietnam
Tram, N. T. A., Chi, T. T., Dung, V. X., Ha, P. T. T., & Ha, V. T. (2025) · International Journal of ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES · doi:10.21833/ijaas.2025.08.020
Joshi, A. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-981-96-6553-2_3
Randolph, G. F. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197769119.003.0005
Randolph, G. F. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197769119.002.0007
Randolph, G. F. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197769119.003.0010
Mittal, N., & Vollmer, S. (2026) · Scientific Data · doi:10.1038/s41597-026-06648-y
Randolph, G. F. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197769119.003.0008
Randolph, G. F. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197769119.003.0009
Randolph, G. F. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197769119.002.0008
Linking Urban Evolution to Development
Randolph, G. F. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197769119.003.0007
Randolph, G. F. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197769119.003.0006
Morphing Places and Moving People
Randolph, G. F. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197769119.003.0002
Randolph, G. F. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197769119.003.0001
Randolph, G. F. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197769119.002.0006
Randolph, G. F. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197769119.003.0004
From Urbanization to Pauperization
Randolph, G. F. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197769119.003.0003
Ledo, J. M., Balakrishnar, K., Long, S. B.-Z., Gilmour, L. E., Campisi, E. M., Krishna, D., Coutinho, F., Nowrouzi‐Kia, B., & Duncan, A. L. (2026) · Indian Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation · doi:10.4103/ijpmr.ijpmr_74_25
Pydi, M. R., Parikh, N., Ranawat, P., Kaur, R., Shankar, A. G., Chaudhuri, A., Stankard, P., Shilton, S., Srinivasan, A., Chowdhury, J., et al. (2026) · Discover Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12982-026-02024-8
- Authors
- Adhikari, A., Goregaonkar, N., Narayanan, R., Panicker, N., & Ramamoorthy, N.
- Affiliations
- Brown University (US)
- St. Xavier's College (IN)
- Azim Premji University (IN)
- Corresponding author
- Narayanan, Rajendran
- ORCID
- Panicker, Nishant
- Venue
- The Indian Journal of Labour Economics
- Published
- 2020-10-21
- Volume
- 63
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 969-997
- ISSN
- 0019-5308 (ISSN-L)
- 0971-7927
- PMC
- PMC7577364
- OpenAlex
- W3093668025
- Cited by
- 64
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 8 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 25.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Indian Journal of Labour Economics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Labor Law and Work Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration and Labor Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Economic Development in India
- Keywords
- migrant workers, COVID-19 lockdown, repatriation, humanitarian crisis, livelihood loss, hunger, worker vulnerability, government response, judicial response, India
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
