Mobility crisis of migrant workers in India post-Covid

Abstract

The famous economist J.S. Mill called human beings, homo-economicus instead of homo sapiens because according to him the human beings are capable of taking very complex decisions very rationally and would be able to optimise their returns in all circumstances. To migrate is one of the toughest decisions for an individual or family as one has to move from a completely known atmosphere (geographical, cultural, social and ethnic) to a completely unknown atmosphere. But migration is as old as history of human beings. Aryans moved from Middle East to all parts of South and South East Asia. Europeans migrated to whole of Soviet Union, Australia and over USA in the days when the travelling itself was very difficult. Since the 20th century, migration has increased manifold. Migration takes place because of variety of reasons but most important reason has been and still is, economic. Although war and natural calamities are also important reasons. Most social and economic thinkers believe that basic cause of migration is economic opportunities, be it real or imaginary. The migration can be of various types rural-urban, urban-urban, rural-rural, within a country, outside the country etc. but migration should not be confused with refugee problem or women migration post-marriage. In real sense, migration is a conscious choice of an individual/family to move from their original place of birth/living to a new place for a particular reason/period and could be temporary/permanent. Economists also discuss migration with voting with feet where people move to other place for better government facilities i.e., education, health etc. but migration in real sense is moving out to a new place by choice for better economic opportunities, a rational decision by a homo economicus. Covid 19 pandemic like a black swan created a very tough, unknown, unheard situation where long lockdowns in most industries, construction, manufacturing and even domestic supports, forced migrants to sit back at their respective situations without income and food support. All migrants follow capitalists like behaviour i.e., at the time of danger and uncertainty they go back to their dens. So, migrants in India moved back to their native places in very large numbers. But hardly the first and second wave of Covid had passed, that those who migrated to native places started migrating back to places from where they had migrated to or such similar places. Within a year, more than 80% had migrated back to from where they had migrated. The circularity of migration is difficult to explain because of the vulnerability, these migrants faced at the time of Covid. No food, no security, no transport and no hope of employment and income at other places. Theories of migration do not promise any sensible explanation where the migration takes place without any imaginable betterment. In this paper the main focus is on circular migration in the first and second phase of Covid which seems totally unexplainable without special reference to domestic states to states migration of rural unskilled/semiskilled wage labour from rural/semi urban areas to metros of some specific states.