COVID-19 in India: who are we leaving behind?
Open accessAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has uncovered and intensified existing societal inequalities. People on the move and residents of urban slums and informal settlements are among some of the most affected groups in the Global South. Given the current living conditions of migrants, the WHO guidelines on how to prevent COVID-19 (such as handwashing, physical distancing and working from home) are challenging to nearly impossible in informal settlements. We use the case of India to highlight the challenges of migrants and urban slum dwellers during the COVID-19 response, and to provide human rights-based recommendations for immediate action to safeguard these vulnerable populations.
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?
The urban poor had already been reeling under the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic before the 2022 extreme heat episode.
“Finally, it is important to note that this group had already been reeling under the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic (Raju et al 2021) before the 2022 extreme heat episode.”
From Attribution of 2022 early-spring heatwave in India and Pakistan to climate change: lessons in assessing vulnerability and preparedness in reducing impacts (2023) · cites this paper as Raju et al 2021
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
Slum Health: Arresting COVID-19 and Improving Well-Being in Urban Informal Settlements
Corburn, J., Vlahov, D., Mberu, B., Riley, L., Caiaffa, W. T., Rashid, S. F., Ko, A., Patel, S., Jukur, S., Martínez-Herrera, E., et al. (2020) · Journal of Urban Health · doi:10.1007/s11524-020-00438-6 · Cited by 587 · see citing works
Non-communicable disease syndemics: poverty, depression, and diabetes among low-income populations
Mendenhall, E., Kohrt, B. A., Norris, S. A., Ndetei, D., & Prabhakaran, D. (2017) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(17)30402-6 · Cited by 556 · see citing works
COVID-19 in Brazil: “So what?”
Lancet, T. (2020) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31095-3 · Cited by 443 · see citing works
Slum Health: From Understanding to Action
Unger, A., & Riley, L. W. (2007) · PLoS Medicine · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0040295 · Cited by 176 · see citing works
Ayeb-Karlsson, S., Kniveton, D., & Cannon, T. (2020) · Palgrave Communications · doi:10.1057/s41599-020-0443-2 · Cited by 129 · see citing works
Self-citationOff the map: the health and social implications of being a non-notified slum in India
Subbaraman, R., O’brien, J., Shitole, T., Shitole, S., Sawant, K., Bloom, D. E., & Patil-Deshmukh, A. (2012) · Environment and Urbanization · doi:10.1177/0956247812456356 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
Ayeb-Karlsson, S. (2021) · Climate and Development · doi:10.1080/17565529.2020.1777078 · Cited by 82 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 44
- [4]Agarwal S. Taneja S. All slums are not equal: child health conditions among the urban poor Indian Pediatr. 42 3 2005 233 244 15817971
- [6]Auerbach A.M. Thachil T. How does Covid-19 affect urban slums? Evidence from settlement leaders in India World Dev. 140 2021 105304 10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105304 PMC8457827 34580560 · DOI
- [8]Ayeb-Karlsson S. A people-centred perspective on climate change, environmental stress, and livelihood resilience in Bangladesh Sustain. Sci. 11 4 2016 679 694 10.1007/s11625-016-0379-z Springer Japan 30174739 PMC6106091 · DOI
- [10]Bai X. Cities: build networks and share plans to emerge stronger from COVID-19 Nature 584 7822 2020 517 520 10.1038/d41586-020-02459-2 32843732 · DOI
- [11]Barnett-Howell Z. Mobarak A.M. The Benefits and Costs of Social Distancing in Rich and Poor Countries Available at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.04867 2020 PMC7928561 33440007 · arXiv
- [14]Bhanot D. Singh T. Verma S.K. Sharad S. Stigma and discrimination during COVID-19 pandemic Front. Public Health 8 2021 577018 10.3389/fpubh.2020.577018 33585379 PMC7874150 · DOI
- [16]BMJ Rapid Response: Success story of Dharavi against COVID-19 [Rapid Response to 'Delhi prepares to hit 500 000 covid-19 cases' by A. Kumar et. al. 2020] 370 2020 10.1136/bmj.m2817 · DOI
- [17]Bosher L. Penning-rowsell E. Tapsell S. Resource accessibility and vulnerability in Andhra Pradesh: caste and non-caste influences Dev. Chang. 38 4 2007 615 640 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00426.x · DOI
- [19]Chatterjee P. Is India missing COVID-19 deaths? Lancet 396 10252 2020 657 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31857-2 32891197 PMC7470692 · DOI
- [20]Chen J. Effect of modelling slum populations on influenza spread in Delhi BMJ Open 6 9 2016 e011699 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-011699 PMC5051437 27687898 · DOI
- [22]Courtemanche C. Strong social distancing measures in the United States reduced the COVID-19 growth rate Health Aff. 39 7 2020 10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00608 32407171 · DOI
- [25]Dixit M. Dilip C. Women locked and down: gendering the Covid-19 pandemic Econ. Polit. Wkly. 55 17 2020 https://www.epw.in/journal/2020/17/commentary/gendering-covid-19-pandemic.html
- [27]Dutta A. Fischer H.W. The local governance of COVID-19: disease prevention and social security in rural India World Dev. 138 2021 105234 10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105234 33106724 PMC7578699 · DOI
- [29]Ezeh A. The history, geography, and sociology of slums and the health problems of people who live in slums Lancet 389 10068 2017 547 558 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31650-6 Elsevier Ltd 27760703 · DOI
- [30]George C.E. High seroprevalence of COVID-19 infection in a large slum in South India; what does it tell us about managing a pandemic and beyond? Epidemiol. Infect. 2021 1 19 PMC7884660 33536108
- [31]Gupta I. Guin P. Health status and access to health services in Indian slums Health 07 2015 245 255 10.4236/health.2015.72029 · DOI
- [35]Jayaram N. Varma D. Examining the ‘labour’ in labour migration: migrant workers’ informal work arrangements and access to labour rights in urban sectors Indian J. Labour Econ. 63 2020 999 1019 (2020) 10.1007/s41027-020-00288-5 PMC7680072 33250597 · DOI
- [36]Jha M.K. Liquid disaster and frigid response: disaster and social exclusion Int. Soc. Work. 58 5 2015 704 716 10.1177/0020872815589388 · DOI
- [37]Koh D. Migrant workers and COVID-19 Occup. Environ. Med. 77 9 2020 634 636 10.1136/oemed-2020-106626 32513832 PMC7476302 · DOI · Paper page
- [38]Koschorke M. Experiences of stigma and discrimination of people with schizophrenia in India Soc. Sci. Med. 123 2014 149 159 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.10.035 Elsevier Ltd 25462616 PMC4259492 · DOI
- [40]Malani A. Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in slums versus non-slums in Mumbai, India Lancet Glob. Health 9 2 2021 e110 e111 33197394 PMC7836622
- [42]Mishra S.V. COVID-19 and urban vulnerability in India Habitat Int 103 102230 2020 10.1016/j.habitatint.2020.102230 PMC7434393 32834301 · DOI
- [46]Nigam S. COVID-19: India's Response to Domestic Violence Needs Rethinking (May 12, 2020). Nigam Shalu (2020) COVID-19: India's Response to Domestic Violence Needs Rethinking’, South Asia J. Available at SSRN https://ssrn.com/abstract=3598999
- [48]Osrin D. A rapid assessment scorecard to identify informal settlements at higher maternal and child health risk in Mumbai J. Urban Health 88 5 2011 919 932 10.1007/s11524-011-9556-7 21487826 PMC3191203 · DOI
- [50]Parpiani M. Fighting fires: migrant workers in Mumbai Econ. Polit. Wkly. 55 14 2020 Available at: https://www.epw.in/journal/2020/14/commentary/fighting-fires-migrant-workers-mumbai.html?fbclid=IwAR2aVsmaXHyyGc2UKU6wkTgDbLn8ryqDI4SNiuqf9nbXCnPumcoBRm9tT-Y
- [51]Patel A. Shah Phoram Rethinking slums, cities, and urban planning: lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic Cities & Health 2020 10.1080/23748834.2020.1790252 · DOI
- [56]Raju E. Five years post-Sendai: where is the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction in the COVID-19 response? Disaster Prev Manag 29 4 2020 421 423 10.1108/DPM-08-2020-400 · DOI
- [57]Raju E. Ayeb-Karlsson S. COVID-19: how do you self-isolate in a refugee camp? Int J Public Health 2020 10.1007/s00038-020-01381-8 PMC7206218 32385541 · DOI
- [58]Raju E. van Niekerk D. Why do the impacts of COVID-19 and the response surprise the world? Jàmbá: J Disast Risk Stud 12 1 2020 3 10.4102/jamba.v12i1.1028 PMC7736670 33354305 · DOI
- [61]Rolsted M. Raju E. Addressing capacities of local communities in a changing context in Nepal Disaster Prev Manag 29 4 2020 485 495 10.1108/DPM-05-2020-0137 · DOI
- [63]Santha S.D. Climate variability, livelihoods and social inequities: the vulnerability of migrant workers in Indian cities Int Area Stud Rev 19 1 2016 76 89 10.1177/2233865915626832 · DOI
- [64]Satterthwaite D. Responding to climate change in cities and in their informal settlements and economies, IPaper prepared for the IPCC for the International Scientific Conference on Cities and Climate Change in Edmonton 2018 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.09.050 · DOI
- [65]Sclar E.D. Garau P. Carolini G. The 21st century health challenge of slums and cities Lancet 365 9462 2005 901 903 10.1016/S0140-6736(05)71049-7 Elsevier 15752535 · DOI
- [73]Vaz de Macedo A. Brazil and COVID-19—a fleeting glimpse of what is to come JAMA Health Forum Vol. 1 9 2020 e201061-e201061. American Medical Association 36218727
- [74]Weill J.A. Social distancing responses to COVID-19 emergency declarations strongly differentiated by income Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 117 33 2020 19658 19660 10.1073/pnas.2009412117 32727905 PMC7443940 · DOI
- [75]Wilkinson A. Local response in health emergencies: key considerations for addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in informal urban settlements Environ. Urban. 2020 1 20 10.1177/0956247820922843 PMC7613852 36438604 · DOI
- [76]Ghosh P. Ghosh R. Chakraborty B. COVID-19 in India: Statewise analysis and prediction JMIR public health and surveillance 6 3 2020 e20341 PMC7431238 32763888
- [78]George C.E. Inbaraj L.R. Chandrasingh S. de Witte L.P. High seroprevalence of COVID-19 infection in a large slum in South India; what does it tell us about managing a pandemic and beyond? Epidemiology & Infection 149 2021 PMC7884660 33536108
- [79]Mehrotra R. Negotiating the static and kinetic cities: the emergent urbanism of Mumbai In Other Cities, Other Worlds 2008 Duke University Press 205 218
- [81]Scott A.J. Storper M. The nature of cities: The scope and limits of urban theory International journal of urban and regional research 39 1 2015 1 15
- [84]Korra V. Dynamics of distress seasonal migration: a study of a drought-prone Mahabubnagar district in Telangana Irudaya Rajan S. Bhagat R.B. Climate change vulnerability and migration 2018 Routledge India 212 236
- [86]Babu B.V. Kusuma Y.S. Sivakami M. Lal D.K. Marimuthu P. Geddam J.B. … Akoijam B.S. Living conditions of internal labour migrants: a nationwide study in 13 Indian cities International Journal of Migration and Border Studies 3 4 2017 328 351
- [87]Guru G. COVID-19 and the Question of Taming Social Anxiety. Econ Polit Wkly, 55, 14 (4). https://www.epw.in/journal/2020/14/editors-desk/covid-19-and-question-taming-social-anxiety.html.
- [90]UN Intergovernmental Conference on the Global Compact for Migration (n.d.) FAQs on the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration (GCM). Retrieved from https://www.un.org/en/conf/migration/faqs.shtml. 26 March 2021.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Zachariah, M., Arulalan, T., AchutaRao, K., Saeed, F., Jha, R., Dhasmana, M. K., Mondal, A., Bonnet, R., Vautard, R., Philip, S., et al. (2023) · Environmental Research Climate · doi:10.1088/2752-5295/acf4b6 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
“Finally, it is important to note that this group had already been reeling under the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic (Raju et al 2021) before the 2022 extreme heat episode.”
BackgroundSelf-citation
- Authors
- Raju, E., Dutta, A., & Ayeb-Karlsson, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Chr. Michelsen Institute (NO)
- Corresponding author
- Dutta, Anwesha
- Venue
- Progress in Disaster Science
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-04
- Volume
- 10
- Pages
- 100163
- ISSN
- 2590-0617 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7989097
- OpenAlex
- W3136842713
- Cited by
- 71
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 10
- FWCI
- 32.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Progress in Disaster Science (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Sussex Research Online (University of Sussex) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- UNU Collections (United Nations University) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban and Rural Development Challenges
- Social Sciences › Health › Migration, Racism, and Human Rights
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Legal, Health, Environmental and COVID-19 Challenges
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, migrants, urban slums, informal settlements, vulnerable populations, social inequality, human rights, pandemic response, India, Global South, public health recommendations
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