How The Pandemic Has Impacted the Lives of Migrant Women?

 

Coronavirus has affected millions of people all around the world. It has severely jolted down the economy and caused great loss of human lives especially in developing and underdeveloped nations. India is one of the top countries severely affected by Covid-19, both directly and indirectly. According to the World Bank, the lockdown has affected more than 40 million internal migrants in India. It also includes a large number of women who accompany their husbands to the city.

 

According to 2011 Census, there are around 45 million migrant workers in India. Out of these, 7 million are women migrant workers who migrated for employment, business, or other kinds of work. The lockdown had affected these women engaged as domestic help, care workers, home-based workers, etc. without any job security, regular income, and socio-economic protection. 

 

Exposure to Health Vulnerability

Due to the Covid-19 situation and lockdown migrants were forced to move back to their hometown. When people were staying indoor to keep themselves safe from Covid-19, these migrants were exposed to risk of getting infected and other health hazards. Many migrants have lost their lives due to hunger, accidents, and other reasons while walking towards their home. Women faced the worst vulnerability as they do not have any sanitary pads to use during periods, and some of the women have delivered their babies on roads due to the unavailability of medical facilities.

 

Psychological Burden and Stress

The domestic help, home-care based jobs, and daily wage labor are some of the traditional occupations that lure migrant women because the majority of them are not literate. Due to lockdown, these women lost their jobs and left with nothing. This is what happened with the majority of them working in the unorganized sector, where they do not enjoy any social insurance scheme, hence due to the pandemic they were further pushed to misery and degradation. This has increased the psychological burden and mental stress on women who are responsible for feeding their children with their daily income. 

 

From Dignity Life to The Begging Like Situation

Millions of migrants move to the city every year in search of jobs and a better future. There are countless stories of women who have secondary education and were earning well before the lockdown. They also had countless dreams and aspirations to pursue, but due to the lockdown they have lost their jobs and their dream seems improbable. Many of them lost their rented home due to the non-payment of rent to their landlords and left on the mercy of NGOs and government aid. This pandemic has drastically turned their dignity life into the begging like a situation where they don't have even one-day ration to feed their family.

This pandemic has impacted the lives of migrant women to a great extent. It caused them to move through humiliation, hunger, health & financial insecurity, mental stress and exhausted them psychologically and emotionally. It a need of an hour to support them emotionally, economically, psychologically, and make them confident enough to pursue their aspirations.