Regional disparities of growth and internal migrant workers in informal sectors in the age of COVID‐19

• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Author: Diganta Das
• Date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2268

COMMENTARY

Regional disparities of growth and internal migrant workers in

informal sectors in the age of COVID-19

Diganta Das

Centre for Studies in Society and

Development, Central University of Gujarat,

gandhinagar, India

Correspondence

Diganta Das, PhD Scholar at centre for studies

in Society and Development, Central

University of Gujarat, Diganta Das, C/O-

Gajendra Nath Das, Vill-Bennibari, District-

Baksa, State- Assam, Pin-781316 India.

Email: diganta253@gmail.com

Why does the migrated worker face with the crisis of livelihoods in general and

informal sectors in India, particularly during the age of corona? Migrant workers in

informal sectors constitute a major percentage of total workforces in India, who have

contributed for the economic development. Due to the overlapping nature of migra-

tion, it would not be possible to estimate the exact numbers of migrated people in

India. This article is an attempt to discuss about how workers are deprived in informal

sectors. Again, the study also discusses how, in the age of coronavirus pandemic, mil-

lions of workers, faced with higher form of informalistion, faced with the threat of

survival. Secondary data are used as methodology. This article argues that, in India,

maximum numbers of workers, who migrated from poor Human Development Index

(HDI)-scored states to high HDI-scored states, faced with higher informalistion of

their jobs, due to deprivation from basic rights in the age of Corona.

1|INTRODUCTION

On the midst of the lockdown, migrated workers of informal sectors

faced with desperation across India to go back to their home. Hence

causing them to come into the street, by foot, only because of liveli-

hood loss, which pushed them to stay dependent on civil society for

their survival. They faced with moderation of humanities from the

hands of polices personnel and from others. They walked along with

their children without having enough money in their pockets to buy

foods on their ways, neither they had any ideas about the future

source of livelihood at their native village nor did they know when to

come back again to urban areas once the situation becomes normal.

Such distress of the workers towards their native place, called

“reverse migration,”in the age of COVID-19 virus, shows the failure

of the government's development model under the banners of “Sabka

Vikaas (Growth for All), ‘Shining India’and ‘Achche Din (Good Days)’”

and so forth. This article is about the plight of informal sector's

migrated workers in the age of novel coronavirus, and also displays

how regional disparities in the line of Human Development Index

(HDI) are caused due to workers' migration to a developed state with

higher HDI. This study argues that workers from poor state joined

informal sectors' jobs after reaching a developed state, and are faced

with worst forms of informalistion of job tenures. Only informal sec-

tors are examined in this article because India's maximum numbers of

migrated workers work in the informal sectors. Again, there is

substantial evidence that, in the age of corona, workers faced with

extreme informalistion of job tenures, cause due to loss of jobs over-

night, after the announcement of nationwide lockdown to contain the

spread of corona. Workers did not get any compensation for their job

loss. This article is based on the data collected from research papers,

census data, planning commission, Government official reports,

National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), reports from media, commen-

taries from civil society and the author's individual comments.

2|THEORETICAL UNDERSTANDING OF

MIGRATION

Migration happens within frameworks where some parts of economic,

socio-cultural and institutional structure changes create both source

and destination points of migrants, which could be rationalized with

the best argument of disproportionateness development between

both the places (de Haas, 2009).

3|MACRO THEORY OF MIGRATION

Neoclassical macro theory of migration argued migration as a part of

county's economic development and stated that internal migration

occurs due to different geographical differences on supply as well as

Received: 1 July 2020Accepted: 4 July 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2268

J Public Affairs. 2020;20:e2268.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd1of6

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2268