Social Sciences & Humanities Open 3 (2021) 100130

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Social Sciences & Humanities Open

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ssaho

Migrant workers and human rights: A critical study on India’s COVID-19

lockdown policy
Shailendra Kumar a, Sanghamitra Choudhury b, c, d, e, f, *
a
Department of Management, Sikkim University, India
b
Department of Asian Studies, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
c
Department of History and Anthropology, Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
d
Hague Academy of International Law, Hague, the Netherlands
e
Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
f
Department of Peace and Conflict Studies and Management, Sikkim University, Gangtok, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: India was one of the leading countries to implement the initial lockdown to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, but
Coronavirus still, the lockdown failed and within a few months, India joined the list of countries most affected by the coro-
COVID-19 navirus epidemic. Why did this transpire? What were the reasons abaft this? Where did the Indian government
Human rights
miss? This manuscript endeavors to study the lacunae in the lockdown plans of the Indian Government and
India
highlights the mistakes committed by the Government which caused the lockdown in India to fail and further
Lockdown policy
Migrant rights exposed the domestic migrant laborers to unbearable difficulties. The manuscript argues that the fundamental and
Pandemic economic rights bestowed upon the domestic migrant workers and other laborers under labor laws and the Indian
constitution were breached extensively during the lockdown and that the state’s policies during the lockdown
worsened the condition of the domestic migrant workers.

1. Introduction
Human Migration is a significant aspect of social science and the oldest
action against poverty. (Galbraith 1979). However, there has been a sig-
nificant difference in the migration process of developed and developing
countries. While in India the migration is more induced by push factors like
penuriousness, unemployment, regional disparities, family movement,
marriage, natural calamities, etc those in developed nations are more pull
factors like prosperity, safety, freedom, etc. Migration and regional dis-
parities are strongly interlinked and the volume of migration within a given
territory varies with the degree of diversity of areas included in that terri-
tory, diversity of people, the difficulty of intervening obstacles, and fluc-
tuations and checks in the economy (Lee 1966). Migration is a reason for
helping billions in getting rid of poverty, improving health, education, in-
come, and conflict and the decline in migration leads to a less-flexible
economy. (Castles 1986). Low migration was one of the reasons for the
slow recovery of the economy from the 2007–’08 financial crisis (Batini
et al. 2010).
The Indian government’s response to dealing with the COVID-19
pandemic was undoubtedly very swift1,2 but it also manifests an
apparent lack of planning and coordination in the scale of its imple-
mentation. India could not get many benefits of implementing early
lockdown and within a few months, it joined the list of countries most
affected by the coronavirus epidemic.3,4
Before analyzing the lockdown policy of the Indian government it
would be feasible to discuss. some important studies on COVID-19 and the

* Corresponding author. 102 H, Nilgiri Apartments, Adabari. Near Maligaon Flyover, Guwahati, ASSAM, India.
E-mail addresses: theskumar7@gmail.com (S. Kumar), schoudhury.oxon@gmail.com, schoudhuryassam@gmail.com (S. Choudhury).
1
Information retrieved from Deol, Taran. (2020, April 13). BJP gives ‘full marks’ to PM Modi for lockdown citing Oxford study, but stands corrected. Retrieved from
https://theprint.in/india/bjp-gives-full-marks-to-pm-modi-for-lockdown-citing-oxford-study-but-stands-corrected/400688/
2
Blavatnik School of Government, University Of Oxford rates Indian Government very high on its response to tackle COVID-19 crisis. (2020, April 10) Coronavirus
Government Response Tracker. Retrieved from https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/research/research-projects/coronavirus-government-response-tracker.
3
BQ Desk. (2020, July 26). India’s COVID-19 Tally Near 14-Lakh Mark; Adds Almost 50,000 New Cases For Third Day Retrieved from: https://www.bloombergquin
t.com/coronavirus-outbreak/coronavirus-india-updates-indias-covid-19-tally-near-14-lakh-mark-adds-almost-50000-new-cases-for-third-day.
4
Jha, P⋅S.(2020, July 6). How Long Will the Pandemic Last? Rate of Growth of Active Cases Holds Key. Retrieved from https://thewire.in/health/covid-india-time
line-active-recoveries.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2021.100130
Received 13 August 2020; Received in revised form 8 November 2020; Accepted 7 February 2021
Available online 17 February 2021
2590-2911/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
S. Kumar, S. Choudhury
situation and the context of imposing lockdown. Viruses have differing
capacities to infect persons. As with other coronaviruses such as SARS or
MERS-CoV, COVID-19 is more contagious and each person infected with
this virus is expected to infect around 2.5 individuals with COVID-19. The
Fatality Rate or chance of dying from the latest coronavirus is around 4.4
percent, but this peril differs by geography and can even shift over the
course of a pandemic, it is withal less hazardous than SARS (10 percent) or
MERS-CoV (34 percent). So, if COVID-19 is less pernicious than other vi-
ruses, then how has it traveled so far and so astronomically immense that it
has brought the entire planet to a halt? The replication appears to be
simply that the current coronavirus is less lethal. Thousands of individuals
have transmitted the virus nescient that they were still contaminated with
either no symptoms or rather minor symptoms. This designates that the
epidemic had already spread to several countries until health ascendant
entities became apprised of the issue and commenced to suggest control
steps. Since no vaccine and medication were available for COVID-19 hence
observing lockdown and keeping the infected person under mandatory
quarantine was the best option available. China’s ambiguity in timely
sharing the nature and severity of the disease and the WHO’s laxity in
taking timely action made the problem more acute and universal. The
governments around the world were caught by surprise as they had little
knowledge and expertise to deal with the problem. Their response was
ambivalent and very few understood the trouble that was brewing up.
In India, COVID-19 was a tragedy that migrant laborers are often stig-
matized and unjustly blamed for the spread of disease (Lau et al. 2020). But
in reality, they were one of the worst affected groups. The impact of the
pandemic on domestic migrants of India was extreme and the poor and
marginalized were the hardest hit. Migrants died due to reasons ranging
from starvation, suicides, exhaustion, road and rail accidents, police bru-
tality, and denial of timely medical care (Guha et al., -2020). The
announcement of the lockdown triggered mass exodus and reverse migra-
tion of unskilled and semi-skilled laborers from major urban cities who
walked back to their villages without food and money. (Dandekar & Ghai
2020; Singh et al., 2020). The continuous reverse migration of millions of
migrant workers to their native villages had a very detrimental impact on
their physical, mental, and economic well-being. As per an estimate putting
together the numbers of short-term seasonal/circular and long-term occu-
pationally vulnerable workers gives us about 128 million (12.8 crores)
workers whose livelihoods may have been adversely impacted with the
onset of COVID19. (Vasudevan 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic induced
reverse migration brought many families to their native places and the onus
shifted on creating more jobs for a person particularly under the Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) scheme-
2005, which is a rural employment scheme that guarantees 100 days of
employment to all. However, schemes have their limitations and not all can
find jobs under the scheme. There have been reports of tussles between the
already registered laborers working in villages under various schemes and
migrant laborers returning home due to lockdown amidst pandemic.
Apart from economic problems the migrants also had to encounter
various psychosocial issues like high degrees of anxieties and fears due to
various concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic (Choudhari 2020).
There were reports in print media related to many migrant workers
facing serious nervous breakdown and depressive psychotic disorders.
(Shastri 2020). The migrants are more prone to social, psychological,
and emotional trauma in such situations, emanating from fear of neglect
by the local community and concerns about their families’ wellbeing and
safety in their native places. (Kumar et al. 2020). Migrants belong to the
most marginalized sections of the society who are dependent on daily
wages for their living, and in times of such distress, need the sympathy
and understanding of the community (Hargreaves et al. 2019). Imme-
diate concerns the migrant workers usually face relate to food, shelter,
health care, fear of getting infected or spreading the infection, loss of
wages, concerns about the family, anxiety, and fear (Firdaus 2017; Singh-
2020; Das 2016). Occasionally, they also face harassment and adverse
reactions from the local community.(Das 2016).
This manuscript will endeavor to study the reasons due to which the
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Social Sciences & Humanities Open 3 (2021) 100130
lockdown in India couldn’t prosper as per the prospect and the adverse
impact it had on the migrant population, concretely the inter-state mi-
grants. The study is predicated on secondary data and through an
analytical and descriptive approach, it endeavors to appraise the lock-
down policy of the Government of India and underlines the reasons abaft
the failure of the lockdown. The literature available on the migration,
newspaper reports, surveys, government of India census-2011 has been
widely consulted for the study. The first part of the manuscript provides a
glimpse of international human rights and labor aegis laws, business and
human rights, and the rights of migrant workers in India. The second part
of the manuscript fixates on the demographic conditions of migrants in
India whereas the third and final part of the manuscript critically ex-
amines the COVID-19 lockdown policy of the Indian Regime.
2. International human rights & labor protection law
The ideals of universal human rights are one of the most paramount
political legacies of the 20th century. Fundamental human rights do not
make any distinction between people predicated on nationality and lo-
cality (Godwin Gill 1978). According to Locke, a foreigner(migrant)
cannot be denied local protection and homage due to and from all (Locke
1690). The fundamental rights have anti-utilitarian implicative in-
sinuations and they cannot be gainsaid by the government even if it is
required in the general interest (Dworkin 1977). These rights accentuate
individual security and autonomy and their base reposes on the pillars of
human dignity, equity, equal rights, equal concern, and equal reverence.
This unique concept of man having innate and inalienable rights against
the state is often manifested in debates and discussion over the rights of
migrants, poor’s, and non-nationals. Migrants often suffer from a sense of
alienation while they work in different states and this is conspicuous
from their mass exodus during the COVID-19 lockdown in India. This
intrinsical and inalienable right of migrants often gets superseded by the
laws derived from the sovereignty of the state. If immigration laws and
policies cannot be imposed without resulting in the breach of a migrant’s
rudimental rights, such laws and policies are presumptively illegitimate.
(Grey 2014). The migrant holds right against a state of destination even if
their status is not identically tantamount to the status of the members of
that state. Human rights are distinct from other rights in the sense that
they apperceive extraordinarily special rudimental interests (Edmundson
2012). These incipient types of rights gained prominence when Article 1
of the 1948 UDHR declaration affirmed, “all human beings are born free
and equal in dignity and rights” (De Baets 2009). Similarly, the Preamble
to the UN Charter additionally calls for tenaciousness to reaffirms faith in
fundamental human rights. The ILO constitution declares that “all human
beings irrespective of race, creed or sex have right to pursue both their
material salubrity and their spiritual development in conditions of
liberation and dignity, of economic security and equal opportunity”
(Brownlie 2006). The workers and migrant rights movement are so old
that in some ways they even antedate the modern human rights move-
ment (Clapham 2015). It has been observed that migrants and refugees
exude special interest in liberty and personal integrity rights, procedural
rights, family rights, employment rights, political rights, and cultural
rights (Goodwin Gill 1989), but the majority of the migrant workers,
particularly those doing low wage jobs in developed and underdeveloped
countries, enjoy very few of the rights outlined in the international
conventions. With the establishment of the International Labor Organi-
zation (ILO) in 1919, the efforts to standardize the workers and migrants’
rights gained momentum. To date, ILO has developed and passed many
conventions of which eight (8) are core conventions that talk about the
fundamental rights of laborers.5 In 1990, the General Assembly of the
United Nations (UNGA) adopted the International Convention on the
5
ILO Note. (2020, July 25). Retrieved from https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp
5/groups/public/—europe/—ro-geneva/—ilo-brussels/documents/genericdoc
ument/wcms_177275.pdf.
S. Kumar, S. Choudhury
Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their
Families (CMW). Throwing light on the significance of the passing
convention, Kofi Annan, the then UN secretary-general, said, “CMW is a
vital part of efforts to combat exploitation of migrant workers and their
families.” (Wickramasekara 2008). Article 9 of the CMW calls for the
protection of the right to life of migrant workers and members of their
families by law whereas Article 10 maintains that no migrant worker or
member of his or her family shall be subjected to torture or cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.6 Article 16 (2) states
that migrant workers and their family members shall be entitled to
effective protection by the State against violence, physical injury, threats,
and intimidation, whether by public officials or by private individuals,
groups, or institutions. However, despite the unmistakable normative
value of protective provisions of many of the Convention’s, the Con-
vention’s ability to substantially ameliorate the human right situation of
anomalous migrants is significantly constrained(Bosniak 1991). Apart
from law, the social cognations of migrant workers are withal critical to
the human rights issues that circumvent them (Li, 2011).
2.1. Business and human rights
Traditionally, every society had some of the other oral or written
codes to deliver justice to people and do business responsibly however,
human rights played a very limited role in business and so has been its
influence. Expressing concern over the minuscule role played by human
rights in business and its Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR), Mary
Robinson observed that, “virtually all the corporate social responsibility
debates around the world do not refer to the international human rights
standards.” (Robinson 2003, pp. 9–12). A solemn endeavor to surmount
this drawback was made in the year 2005 when the UN
Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan appointed Harvard Preceptor, Mr.
John Ruggie, as his Special Representative for Business and Human
Rights.7 In his report, John Ruggie introduced a tripartite framework
called “Protect, Respect, and Remedy”. According to the first principle of
Ruggie’s report, the States must ‘protect’ against human rights abuses by
non-state actors, including by business, affecting persons within their
territory or jurisdiction. The second principle states that it is the re-
sponsibility of business to ‘respect’ human rights. The companies “are
expected to obey the law, even if it is not enforced, and to respect the
principles of relevant international instruments where national law is
absent.” Access to ‘remedy’ in case of human rights abuse is the third
principle. The access to remedy includes both judicial and non-judicial
grievance redressal mechanisms (Ruggie 2011).
2.2. The rights of migrant workers in India
With every migrant India also moves, as greater mobility is a pre-
requisite for maintaining the country’s pluralistic traditions (Tumbe,
2018). Millions of people move-from-to-and within India, but while
dealing with these migrants the human attribute goes missing. However,
India has numerous laws and constitutional provisions related to labor
and migrant rights. For instance; the fundamental rights available to the
migrants are exhibited in Article 14 of the Indian constitution which
holds that everyone is equal before the law; Article 15 prohibits the state
from discriminating against citizens; Article 16 confers the right of equal
opportunity for employment under a state (Austin 2012; Basu 2019);
Article 19(1) (c) confers the right to form associations and unions; Article
6
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant
Workers and Members of Their Families. Adopted by General Assembly reso-
lution 45/158 of 18 December 1990.(2020, July25). Retrieved from https
://www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/cmw.pdf.
7
All consultation documents, submission and other papers relating to the
mandate of the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights are
available at: http://www.business-humanrights.org/SpecialRepPortal/Home.
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Social Sciences & Humanities Open 3 (2021) 100130
21 guarantees protection to life and personal liberty; Article 21 A pro-
vides for free and compulsory education to all children in 6–14 age
groups; Article 23 of the Indian constitution prohibits all sorts of traf-
ficking and forced labor; Article 24 prohibits child labor and makes it
illegal to employ a child under 14 in a factory, mine, or any other haz-
ardous work; Article 38(1) of the Indian constitution directs the State to
strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting
social order for the promotion of the welfare of the people; Article 38(2)
directs the state to strive to minimize income inequalities in the country;
Article 39 (d) of the Indian Constitution provides that the state should
strive to ensure equal pay for equal work for both men and women;
Article 41 of the Indian constitution directs the states to strive to ensure
the right to work for its citizens which was attempted to put into practice
through the introduction of “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employ-
ment Guarantee Act-200500 ,(MGNREGA)- a scheme that aims to provide
at least 100 days of employment guarantee to every adult member of a
rural household who volunteer to do unskilled manual work (Kashyap
2015; Sharma 2005; Bhargava 2010; Choudhry et al. 2016; Khosla 2019);
Article 42 directs the state to work for providing secure, just, and humane
working conditions and for maternity assuagement; Article 43 directs the
state to ascertain that workers are having the right to a living wage and
good working conditions that include a decent standard of life and full
delectation of leisure and convivial and cultural opportunities; and
Article 43 A of the Constitution directs the State to work on legislation
that would secure the participation of workers in the management of
undertakings, establishments, or other organizations engaged in any
industry.
Apart from the provisions laid down in the Indian constitution, there
are also laws meant to protect the interest of Indian migrant workers of
which one is the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act-1979 (ISMW). This
Act was amended in 2017 and now it is known as the Inter-State Migrant
Workmen (ISMW Regulation of Employment & Conditions of Services)
Central (Amendment) Rules, 2017 (Kumar & Rai, 2019). The ISMW Act
regulates the employment of inter-state migrant workmen and makes
provision for their conditions of service and matters connected there-
with. The act makes it mandatory for the labor contractors to obtain a
license, register his migrant workers with the government authorities,
and arrange the issue of a passbook to record the identity of the workers.
The Act also outlines the guidelines related to the wages, accommoda-
tion, medical facilities, protective clothing, etc to be provided to the
workers by the contractor. The other important Indian laws meant to
protect the interest of workers are: Trade Union Act-1926 that defines
law related to registration of trade unions and provisions related to
registered trade unions; Payment of Wages Act-1936 ensures that wages
be paid in cash and not in kind to employed persons within the prescribed
time limit; Industrial Dispute Act-1947 provides for the investigation and
settlement of industrial disputes; Minimum Wages Act-1948 provides for
fixing minimum wage rates in certain employments; Payment of Bonus
Act-1965 provides for payment of minimum bonus of 8.33% of salary to
workers working in enterprises employing 20 or more people; Contract
Labor (Regulation and Abolition) Act-1970 regulates the employment of
contract labor in certain establishments and to provide for its abolition in
certain circumstances and for matters connected therewith; Equal
Remuneration Act-1976 provides for payment of equal remuneration to
men and women; Child Labor (prohibition and Regulation) Act-1986
prohibits the child under 14 years of age from being employed in
certain employments; Unorganized Workers Social Security Act-2008
provides for social security and welfare of unorganized workers; Mater-
nity (Amendment) Bill-2017 provides for 26 weeks of paid maternity
leave to women employees who have worked in an establishments for at
least 80 days in past 12 months; and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act-2005 provides for 100 days of guaranteed
employment in every financial year to unskilled workers of rural India.
Thus, it is apparent that there is no dearth of laws to protect the interests
of migrants and workers in India, however, the main issue relates to the
implementation of those laws. Even after so many laws, the migrants and
S. Kumar, S. Choudhury
laborers are poor and exploited and completely dependent on the mercy
of employers and contractors.
India is a founding member of ILO and since 1922, it has been a
permanent member of this world body. It has also ratified six out of eight
core fundamentals of ILO but it has not ratified the convention No.87 &
98 due to governance-related issues. (Negi 2000). Convention No. 87 is
mainly linked to the 1948 Convention on Equality of Assembly and Se-
curity of the Right to Organise. The Employees ‘and Employers’ Sodal-
ities shall be sanctioned, in compliance with this Convention, to draw up
their constitutions and laws, to nominate their members openly, to co-
ordinate their administration and operations, and to devise their pro-
grams. Furthermore, the convention urges the public bodies to forbear
any interference that might restrict or obstruct the legitimate exercising
of that privilege.
Similarly, convention No. 98 is linked to the 1949- Convention on the
Freedom to Organise and Collective Bargaining. In compliance with this
law, employees shall relish adequate auspice regarding their jobs from
actions of anti-amalgamation discrimination. The key explication for
India’s refusal to ratify ILO Conventions No.87 & 98 is that the ratifica-
tion of these conventions will entail the granting to government workers
of such privileges verboten under statutory laws, namely to strike
employment, to publicly oppose regime policy, to liberatingly embrace
financial donations, to liberatingly enter international organizations, etc.
3. Demography and condition of migrant workers in India
Migration has a high potential to ameliorate human development and
some studies validate that migration is a foremost passage out of
penuriousness(Sutherland 2013; Adams and Page 2005). However, in
India the inter-state migrants are still not treated opportunely and the
policies are not made aiming to integrate the migrants with the process of
development.(Bhagat 2012). The decision to migrate in India is mainly
affected by both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors but the gamut of migration
research in India is mainly dominated by the ‘Rural Push’ theory. (Parik
1986). The analysis of Census-2011 shows that migration in India is
mainly driven by factors like employment, marriage, education, move-
ment with family, natural calamities, and other factors but, marriage and
employment are the two primary reasons for migration, with marriage
being the most sizably voluminous reason. However, the reason for
migration varies by gender as, among men, employment is the main
cause of migration whereas, among women, marriage is the main cause
of migration.8 Most of the migrants do low adept or inept jobs and
accommodate as a consequential source of manpower in developed states
of India. Thus migration in India is induced by both penuriousness and
prosperity. India has an astronomically immense migrant population as
every third person in India is a migrant. As per the 2011 census, migrants
constitute 455.8(approx.) millions of India’s 1.21 billion(approx.) pop-
ulation which is 37.68 percent of the total population.9 This includes
inter-state migrants and intra-state migrants. Out of 455.8 million mi-
grants, 67.93% are women and 32.07% are men. The predominant
reason for migration among women was cited as marriage(S. Choudhury,
2016; Sanghamitra Choudhury & Kumar, 2021)). This reason for
migration was stated by around 42.4 million migrants out of 65.4 million
female migrants in total. Among males, ‘Work/Employment’ was the
most significant reason for migration, 12.3 million out of 32.8 million
total male migrants cited this reason for migration. The state of Maha-
rashtra magnetizes the highest quota of migrants in India whereas the
8
Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. (2020, July
25.). Data on Migration-2011 Census. Retrieved from https://censusindia.gov
.in/2011census/migration.html and https://www.censusindia.gov.in
/2011-common/census_2011.html.
9
On the basis of census of India-2011 data retrieved from https://censusindia
.gov.in/2011census/migration.html and https://www.censusindia.gov.in
/2011-common/census_2011.html.
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Social Sciences & Humanities Open 3 (2021) 100130
state of Uttar Pradesh supplies the highest number of inter-state mi-
grants. In India, the bulk of the migration is intra-state i.e. 395.6 million,
whereas 54.3 million migrants are inter-state migrants. Due to the
absence of any formal hiring system or a database that captures the
experience, the migrant workforce usually doesn’t see any systematic rise
in salary. As per a survey approximately 86% of the migrants earn be-
tween $133–399(INR 10,000–30,000) per month and they repatriate as
much as 60 percent of their earnings back home. (Ghosh 2019). Most of
the migrants are typically younger and 85 percent of the migrants fall in
the age group of 18–30 years. These migrants are exposed to below
standard living conditions and most of them do not work under any
formal contracts. The migrant workers are out of any convivial security
net and their working and living condition is not resolute by the state but
by their contractors. They generally do not get the benefits of public
schemes such as the public distribution of food, free education, and
health-care facilities due to lack of registration and documentation. Most
of their documents are related to their place of origin, with a significant
proportion lacking any relevant documents. (Bhagat 2014; Bhagat 2020).
4. A critical analysis of India’s lockdown strategy
The treatment given to migrants by the state coveys the nation’s
value. (Dauvergne 2004). The extemporaneous and sudden lockdown by
the Indian government citing COVID-19 pandemic led to the worst
migrant crisis visually perceived by India after the partition of the
country in 1947. The reasons for the failure of lockdown in India were:
4.1. Sudden lockdown
The government of India implemented lockdown at a very short
notice of 4 hours. It is a recherche and unexpected phenomenon in de-
mocracy. All this was done without giving any forebodings to the general
public. The first case of coronavirus infection in India was reported on
January 30, 2020, and by mid-March, its number perpetuated to incre-
ment. The time from January to mid-March was enough to mentally
prepare the general public for the impending lockdown, but till mid-
March government officials kept assuring the public that COVID-19
infection in India had not taken the form of an epidemic and the In-
dian government is not cerebrating of implementing any lockdown in
near future.10 They described all reports of impending lockdown as just a
rumor.11 On March 18, 2020, the Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra
Modi, appealed to the fellow denizens of the country to optically canvass
a self-imposed public-curfew (Janata curfew) on March 22, 2020,
and join the fight to vanquish the virus.12Memories of demonetiza-
tion were still afresh among many poor migrants and anticipating a
lockdown they commenced herding for trains and buses to reach their
aeonian residence, but to their surprise, Indian Railways promulgated to
rescind all its trains originating between midnight of March 21–22, 2020
without giving any prior notice.13 All the migrant workers were stuck
where they were. At 8 p.m. on March 24, 2020, the Prime Minister Mr.
Narendra Modi promulgated a three-week stringent nationwide lock-
down efficacious from March 25, 2020, at 12 a.m.-midnight. After the
10
On March 19, 2020, the CEO of India’s public broadcaster, Mr. Shashi
Shekhar assured on Twitter that speculations related to impending lockdown are
totally incorrect and causing unnecessary panic in the minds of the people.
Retrieved on July 25, 2020 from https://twitter.com/shashidigital/status/
1240590637885345792.
11
Mr. Lav Agrawal, the Joint Secretary of Health Ministry, statement on March
22, 2020. Retrieved on July 25, 2020 from https://twitter.com/CNBCTV18Live/
status/1241327730429292546.
12
Janata(Public) curfew was observed on March 22, 2020 Retrieved from htt
ps://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/diagnostics/india-observes
-janata-curfew-millions-stay-indoors/74757440.
13
Railway cancelled all the trains w.e.f. March 21–22 midnight. Retrieved
from https://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay.aspx?newsID¼687266.
S. Kumar, S. Choudhury
promulgation of lockdown, the Government invoked the Disaster Man-
agement Act-2005 which potentiates it to convict a person for one to five
years if he is found culpable of adamantly obstructing the government
employee or relucting to comply with the directives of Central or State
governments. The act additionally provides for the confining and fining a
Government officer for failure in obligation. Many human rights of the
denizens got suspended overnight as the pandemic was considered as a
Disaster by the government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Twitter
post in caps lock verbalized, “THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO NEED TO
PANIC"14 but that couldn’t assure the mundane people who inundated
into the provisional stores and medicine shops to procure the essentials at
midnight. As expected, the sudden lockdown was sure to lead to two
things - one the panic buying of essentials and two the returning of
migrant laborers to their abode. And both transpired. It was surprising
that why the government didn’t take into account these two factors while
implementing such a sudden lockdown. The chronology of events further
betokens that either the top government officials had no conception at all
about the impending lockdown or they were endeavoring to give erro-
neous assurance to the general public to evade any panic. The United
Nations Human Rights Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet additionally
expressed her deep distress over the plight of affected migrant workers.15
Rampant breach of human rights of migrant laborers during lockdown
could be further corroborated with the enhanced number of human rights
infringement cases filed at the National Human Rights Commission
(NHRC) of India.16
4.2. Forsaking stranded migrants and workers
The second mistake that the government made in the lockdown was
to leave the stranded migrant laborers in a state of despair without
extending any significant help. In India migration is primarily for
survival and poverty is a major inducing factor behind migration.
Hence, as expected, the migrant laborers ran out of resources within a
few days of the lockdown promulgation. The Central Government and
State governments issued advisories to all the employers to pay full
wages and salaries to their employees during the lockdown. This advisory
didn’t discount the fact that mid and minute businesses possess very
circumscribed cash reserves and without paramount state avail, these
companies would not be able to comply with the advisories issued by the
Government. While most of the European countries including Great
Britain fortified their private companies by paying 50 to 80 percent of
salary expenses,17 the Indian government only promulgated to pay the
provident fund for people earning below $200 approx. (Rs. 15,000) per
month.18 This move of the Indian government was not an immensely
colossal avail as most of the migrant laborers in India do not work in an
organized sector and are not aeonian workers and a survey by Azim
Premji University withal shows that 92% of women and 82 percent male
14
Twitter post of PM Modi on March 24, 2020. Retrieved on 25 July 2020
from https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1242476408896507910.
15
UN statement over plight of Indian migrants during lockdown. Retrieved on
25 July 2020 from https://twitter.com/UNHumanRights/status/1245740115
730796550?ref_src¼twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%
5E1245740115730796550%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url¼https%3A%2F%2Fnews
.un.org%2Fen%2Fstory%2F2020%2F04%2F1060922.
16
National Human Rights Commission of India reported 2582 cases of human
rights violation in the month of April 2020, when the country was under a strict
lockdown. Retrieved on 25 August 2020 from https://www.livemint.com
/news/india/how-coronavirus-turned-into-humanitarian-crisis-for-migrant-wo
rkers-11590401718622.html.
17
Coronavirus: Government to pay up to 80% of workers’ wages Retrieved on
25 July 2020 from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51982005.
18
Govt asks small firms to retain employees, will fund their PF for 3 months.
Retrieved on 25 August 2020 from https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-ne
ws/government-to-pay-24-pension-for-three-months-for-those-earning-
less-thanrs-15k/story-EkoN265UpBniPrp3K07GaM.html.
5
Social Sciences & Humanities Open 3 (2021) 100130
workers in India earn less than $ 133 approx. (Rs.10,000) per
month.19The majority of the laborers lost their jobs and the companies
relucted to pay them salaries for the lockdown period. Apart from the
state, Indian Inc. additionally exhibited a lack of empathy and concern
for the laborers and migrants by resorting to atrocious policies including
non-payment of dues and retrenchment during the lockdown. Expressing
anguish over the layoffs by Indian companies amid the COVID-19
pandemic, Sir Ratan Tata, Chairman emeritus Tata Group of Com-
panies verbalized, “These are the people that have worked for you. These
are the people who have served you all their careers. You send them out
to live in the rain. Is that your definition of ethics when you treat your
labor force that way?“20 The Indian Home Ministry in its March 29, 2020
notification did authoritatively mandate the companies to pay full wages
to employees during the lockdown period but when the order was
challenged in court the government decided to keep its order in abeyance
and asked the employers and employees to go for mutual settlement on
lockdown period wage issue in accordance to the provisions mentioned
in Industrial Dispute Act.21 After implementing lockdown the Govern-
ment assured that the food supply during lockdown would go unhindered
and promulgated the doubling of aliment ration quota per person for all
the poor people enrolled under the Public Distribution System(PDS). The
ration cards designated to avail the benefits under PDS are issued to only
denizens of that particular place and not to outsiders. Since most of the
migrant workers didn’t have ration cards of the place where they work
hence they couldn’t avail of the benefit of the free ration scheme. While
making the lockdown policy the government thoroughly ignored the fact
that most of the migrant workers do not hold ration cards of the place
where they are working and they would not be able to sustain themselves
for long without any assistance. Conclusively, after 50 days of lockdown,
the Government decided to do away with the compulsory ration card
condition to avail PDS benefits and promulgated free aliment support to
80 million Indian’s who were not a component of PDS. The authentic
implementation of this promulgation took much more time. A survey
conducted on 11,000 migrant workers stranded across a different loca-
tion in India during lockdown reveals that 96% of them didn’t receive
rations from the government, 70% didn’t receive any cooked aliment and
as many as 89% didn’t receive any payment from their employers during
the lockdown.22
Furthermore, the government didn’t come up with any rent-
resolution plan and neither did it promulgated any marginally rent
waiver scheme while implementing lockdown, thus leaving tenants on
the clemency of their landlords. Since most of the migrant workers live
on rent hence they were worst affected and many of them reported
harassment by their landlords.23
19
Considering 1$ ¼ Rs. 75.20. Retrieved on July 25, 2020 from https://t
imesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/relationships/wor
k/in-india-82-male-and-92-female-workers-earn-less-than-10000-per-month
-report/photostory/66027318.cms#:~:text¼Shockingly%2C%2082%20per%
20cent%20of,the%20Seventh%20Central%20Pay%20Commission).
20
Ratan Tata’s statement retrieved on July 25, 2020 from https://thewire.
in/business/ratan-tata-layoffs-covid-19.
21
March 29, 2020 order of the Indian home ministry directing companies to
pay full wages to employees during lockdown stands withdrawn Retrieved on
May 18, 2020, 23:26 IST from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/mh
a-order-directing-companies-to-pay-full-wages-to-employees-during-lockdown-
withdrawn/articleshow/75813365.cms.
22
Survey by Stranded Workers’ Action Network (SWAN) on 11,000 migrant
workers. Retrieved on July 25, 2020 from https://www.thehindu.com/news/res
ources/article31442220.ece/binary/Lockdown-and-Distress_Report-by-Str
anded-Workers-Action-Network.pdf.
23
Migrant workers reporting harassment by landlords. Retrieved on May 18,
2020 from https://www.timesnownews.com/mirror-now/crime/article/har
assed-by-landlord-for-rent-migrant-worker-commits-suicide-in-gurugram/
593810 and https://www.newsclick.in/COVID-19-rift-between-tenants-land
lords-grows-extended-lockdown-compounds-students-woes-delhi.
S. Kumar, S. Choudhury
4.3. Apathy towards migrants ambulating home
Since public convey was absent hence the migrants opted to go back
to their habitation on foot, bicycle, autorickshaw, hitchhiking, or via any
other available mode, often on the vacuous or half-filled stomach. Some
died ambulating, some died in accidents, some died of hunger, and some
even committed suicide. The highways of the country were filled with
woebegoneness, scream, and pain of migrant laborers. No one except,
some voluntary organizations and some benevolent people in individual
capacity24 came for their rescue; otherwise, the Indian weather withal
did not fortify them either. Migrant laborers became an alien in their
land. The Government was thoroughly missing from the highways and
failed to provide food and water for the migrants. The least that the
government could have done was ordering the establishment of stalls and
highway kitchens to alleviate the hunger and suffering of the migrants
ambulating back home, but haplessly neither this was even done.
To make the nationwide lockdown prosperity, the government was
consummately dependent on the police and paramilitary forces, who
endeavored as well as possible, but at times, while implementing the
lockdown they went tough on hapless migrants. There were reports of
migrants facing police wrath during the lockdown.25 The apathy
exhibited by the state towards the plight of migrant workers validates
Robert Michels, “Iron Law of Oligarchy”, which maintains that all invo-
lute organizations no matter how much so ever democratic they are,
gradually get converted into rule by an elite or oligarchies. (Michels
1999).
4.4. Convoluted convey policy
After astringent reprehension and pressure from all the corners, and
probably realizing that the fight against coronavirus is going to last long,
on April 29, 2020, the Government issued orders to sanction the migrants
to return home by buses and trains. The Indian Government decided to
run special Shramik (Labor) Special Trains between the states but this
turned out to be another mistake. The Government’s order of April 29,
2020, promulgated the resumption of bus and train facility for migrant
laborers but with a condition that it would be done only if both the
inception State Government and destination State Government make a
joint request to the Central Government to this.26 This order again
engendered chaos and perplexity between the states because Indian
states and Union territories scarcely communicate with each other. The
April 29, 2020 order of the Central Government unveiled a very convo-
luted and ambivalent process of registering and sending the migrants
back to their domicile state. To peregrinate back to their domicile state,
the migrants had to do the following exercise:
- The first step was to secure a medical fitness certificate from a
government hospital verbalizing that the person is Corona negative and
fit to peregrinate. The expense of obtaining this certificate had to be
borne by the individual himself.
- The second step required filling out an online form and registering
with their abode state on their website.
24
Film star Sonu Sood ran rescue operations in individual capacity for the
stranded workers. Retrieved on 25 July 2020 from https://www.thehindu
.com/entertainment/movies/sonu-sood-migrant-workers-built-our-homes-i-coul
dnt-watch-them-being-homeless/article31685826.ece.
25
Incidents of police atrocities over migrants during lockdown were also re-
ported in media. Retrieved on July 25, 2020 from https://www.latestlaws.co
m/latest-news/save-them-from-police-atrocities-plea-in-sc-seeks-compensation-
for-migrant-workers-killed-injured-during-lockdown/
26
Centre allows movement of stranded migrant workers, tourists and students.
Retrieved on July 25, 2020 from, https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/e
conomy/policy/centre-allows-movement-of-stranded-migrant-workers-tourists-
and-students/article31464530.ece.
6
Social Sciences & Humanities Open 3 (2021) 100130
- The third step involved visiting the local police station to secure a
peregrinate pass so that they could reach the rail station.
Compliance with the above steps had certain operational difficulties.
It was postulated that every migrant labor has a smartphone with an
internet facility active in it but the fact was most of the migrant laborers
are not tech-savvy and didn’t have a cyberspace-yare smartphone and
those who had withal were not plenarily conversant in operating them.
As a result, most of the migrants faced great arduousness in complying
with the above-mentioned steps. Due to overload the websites of many
state governments frequently turned unresponsive. Even those who
somehow managed to register themselves had no way of tracking their
applications. Those who were not comfortable utilizing smartphones had
no other option than to visit railway stations in person but not every
station had an avail desk facility to avail them. On the other hand, the
middle and upper-class people peregrinating by Premium Rajdhani
Trains had to only buy tickets online and emerge at the railway station for
thermal screening afore boarding the train or plane. It is still obscure why
two different sets of rules were followed and why the migrant laborers
had to follow more stringent rules in comparison to middle and upper-
class passengers. The migrants’ rights to get equipollent treatment
were compromised. This also resonates in the words of Martin Luther
King (Junior), “Injustice anywhere is a threat to equity everywhere".27
4.5. Charging exorbitant fare from destitute workers
The decision to charge the stranded migrant laborers for Shra-
mik(Labor) Special Trains was another apathetic decision and miscon-
strue on part of the Central Government. When the government decided
to commence special trains for the migrant laborers it promulgated that
the operating cost for the Special Train shall be borne by the Centre and
States jointly in 85-15 percent formulae i.e. 17:3 ratio. However this
promulgation was a mere façade as the guideline to operate labor trains
issued by the Ministry of Railways explicitly mentions that the Railways
shall print the tickets and give it to the local state government ascen-
dancy who shall then handover to the passengers cleared by them and
accumulate the ticket fare, and thereafter the ascendancy will hand over
the mazuma to Railways. Thus the Indian Railways charged full fares
from the migrant laborers despite kenning that many of them are
impoverished after losing jobs due to lockdown. The doubt on fare
sharing formulae got resolved when in a verbalization made in Supreme
Court, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the central govern-
ment, demystified that the fare for the special trains run by the railways is
paid either by the originating state or the receiving one.28 The Cental
government had enough mazuma to plenarily subsidize the train fare of
all the migrants but it decided not to do so.
4.6. Exploitative amendments in labor laws
After imposing a nationwide lockdown from March 25, 2020, on-
wards the Indian Government started allowing resumption of some
economic activities from April 20, 2020, onwards in low-risk zones, but
due to wide-scale reverse migration of migrant laborers the economic
activities continued to remain low. The pandemic further opened doors
for labor law violations and exploitation of laborers by the state and
employers. Citing a lack of human resources due to the corona crisis,
several Indian states amended their labor laws and enhanced the working
27
Martin Luther King Junior “Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]"
written on 16 April-1963 compiled by AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER – UNIV. OF
PENNSYLVANIA. Retrieved on July 25, 2020 from https://www.africa.upenn.
edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html.
28
Modi Government clarifies it’s not paying Shramik Express fare. Retrieved
on July 25, 2020 from https://theprint.in/india/governance/modi-govt-finally
-clarifies-its-not-paying-shramik-express-fare-says-states-footing-bill/431410/
S. Kumar, S. Choudhury
hours of laborers without any provision for paying overtime to them. The
daily working hours were enhanced from eight to twelve to help the
industry recover from the pandemic and spur private investment. This
was against the International Labor Organization (ILO) convention to
which India is one of the signatories. ILO expressed its disagreement with
the amendments in labor laws done by the Indian states and advised to
hold tripartite talks between the labor unions, employers, and govern-
ment before applying the amended rules.29 Exposing its laborers to do 12
h of rigorous work should not be a norm in a country that claims itself to
be socialist and labor-friendly. Gandhi has also observed that the saving
of labor of an individual should be the objective and the honest hu-
manitarian consideration, and not greed, the motive.30 The provision to
extend the working hours from ten to twelve was also contrary to Article
43 of the Indian constitution which directs the state to ensure for workers
the right to a living wage and good working conditions that includes a
decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cul-
tural opportunities. Though Article-43 is a non-enforceable part of the
Indian Constitution yet it is a part of directive principles that are morally
binding upon the state. Many migrants work as frontline staff in different
Indian states and amongst them, many of them work for the government
but their condition was also not better either. During the lockdown, there
are reports that at some places, state government and local bodies had
expressed their inability to pay salaries to frontline warriors, causing
nurses, doctors, and other staff to go on strike and organise a protest
against it. At many places, the frontline warriors protested and even
resigned due to the non-availability of the Personal Protective Equipment
(PPE) kit.31 Complaints about the payment of salaries were not just
limited to the state governments and the local bodies alone, but many
central government-run public sector enterprises also ceased the salary of
its employees during the corona crisis. For example; the National carrier
of India, Air-India asked many of its employees to go on leave without
pay(LWP) for a period ranging from six months to five years and also
proposed a pay cut ranging from 3.5 to 60 percent.32 The job loss and pay
cut in the private sector was massive and as per an estimate by the Centre
for Monitoring Indian Economy(CMIE), the jobless rate increased to
27.11% during the lockdown in April 2020 and 122 million people lost
jobs in India.33 Overall, the request made by the Indian PM to not cut the
wages of workers and to not remove them from jobs during lockdown
went unheard by a large number of employers which include both gov-
ernment and private employers. Lack of proper planning, improper
implementation, and absence of a backup plan were key factors in the
failure of India’s lockdown policy.
Even though the Judiciary has no role in policy formulation yet, this
debate would be incomplete without examining the role played by the
Supreme Court of India during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Supreme
Court of India declined at the initial stage to regale any public interest
29
ILO advised India to increase working hours from 8 to 12 only after holding
consultations from all stakeholders. Retrieved on August 25, 2020 from https
://scroll.in/latest/961977/covid-19-india-should-amend-labor-laws-only-after-
consulting-workers-and-employers-says-ilo.
30
Gandhi’s opinion on saving labor published in his newspaper Young India
on, 13-11-24, p. 378 retrieved on July 20, 2020 from https://www.mkgandhi.o
rg/voiceoftruth/machinery.htm.
31
Non-payment of salary to doctors and PPE kit shortage was widely reported.
Retrieved on July 25, 2020 from https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/de
lhi/2020/may/12/mcd-doctors-not-paid-salaries-for-3-months-2142248.html.
32
60% salary cuts for AI pilots and meagre ones for top management says
Trade Unions Retrieved on July 25, 2020 from https://www.business-standard
.com/article/companies/ai-proposes-60-salary-cut-for-pilots-55-found-covid-1
9-positive-so-far-120071601676_1.html?fbclid¼IwAR3VgefCHc5p5oj69JVr-
mPijFCxVzbJoHfIy0L0yl7ZAAaq1IHRF6bZNrg.
33
Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy(CMIE) date on job loss retrieved on
25 July 2020 retrieved from https://www.cmie.com/kommon/bin/sr.php?kall
¼warticle&dt¼2020-05-05%2008:22:21&msec¼776&ver¼p
f&cht_w¼600&cht_h¼330.
7
Social Sciences & Humanities Open 3 (2021) 100130
litigation(PIL) on the migrants’ plight. It refused to entertain PILs high-
lighting the condition of workers who were walking home or were being
herded into trucks. It was only after two(2) months of lockdown and
constant criticism by activists, activist-lawyers, and even retired judges
that the Supreme court of India decided to take suo-motu cognizance of
the plight of migrant workers and allowed the opening of transportation
for the migrant workers. Moreover, the relief granted by the Supreme
Court was “too little” and “too late.” From the initial Court’s reply, there
was a hapless posit discernible that the government is the felicitous judge
of the circumstance but in believing so, the Court appears to have
overlooked that, in times of crisis, the Law is not obliged to stay silent.
Likewise, nothing obviates the Court from directly controlling the con-
dition itself. According to Ajit Prakash Shah, former Chief Equity of the
High Courts of Delhi and Madras and former Chairperson of the Law
Commission of India, “The Court essentially deprived people the most
rudimental right of access to equity, granted under the Constitution, by
not providing any assuagement. In doing so, it dismissed millions of
migrant workers and has struggled to act congruously as a supreme
court”. (Shah 2020).
5. Conclusion
Migration is conventionally not taken positively in India and migrants
face arduousness in having access to health care facilities, ration facil-
ities, and other amenities. The migrants who already face language,
cultural, licit, regulatory, and practical barriers further got more alien-
ated after the invocation of sudden lockdown by Indian Government
under the Disaster Management Act-2005. They were like a helpless
community, which the states and corporations utilized for their economic
advancement when required, but thoroughly forsook them as anon as
disaster struck. The migrants got devoid of humane treatment by the state
and corporations during the COVID-19 lockdown. The COVID-19
epidemic underlined the solemn deficiencies in the Disaster Manage-
ment Policy of the Government of India. The responses of Indian gov-
ernments in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic drew attention to the
following points:
- the government of India was ill-prepared to withstand any wide-
spread epidemic or catastrophe situation.
- Indian government and world bodies including WHO completely
failed to properly and timely assess the severity of the Covid-19
epidemic.
- there exist serious flaws in the pandemic policy of the government of
India and there is an urgent need to address those flaws and introduce
a new pandemic policy that is more humane, adaptive, and inclusive
in nature.
- the epidemic highlighted the government’s limited reach in success-
fully implementing the lockdown.
Thus it can be concluded that there exist discrepancies in India’s
pandemic and emergency replication strategies that need to be discussed
imperatively. The strategy, which increases the inclusion of all compo-
nents of the internal migrant community in society, especially children
and women, should be more humane. It is withal recommended that
afore introducing any legislation that could impact the life of the masses,
the public needs to be taken into confidence. It is paramount to avert
sudden policy decisions that can affect the lives of sizably voluminous
masses. Cognizance on the need to prioritize internal migration in poli-
cymaking additionally needs to be incremented. In Indian society, there
is a further need to alter the derogatory perception towards internal
migrants.
Declaration of competing interest
I/We, Shailendra Kumar and Sanghamitra Choudhury do hereby
declare that there is no known competing financial interests or personal
S. Kumar, S. Choudhury
relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in
this paper.
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