Track: Graduate Student Paper Competition

Abstract

Covid-19 crisis has made huge impact and caused grave economic challenges in countries around the world and especially on developing countries like India. Many sectors were affected both economically and emotionally. One such sector which had the possibility of being harmed was that of migrant labourers. The labourers were suddenly left jobless due to the pandemic. Most of them moved to their place of origin but some decided to stay at their place of work. Many news articles highlighting their hardships and struggles were published. Government and private organizations extended some aid towards their daily requirements during the pandemic. However, not a lot of research articles were published about their condition and how they fared during the time.

Being an unorganized sector, the workers do not have job security. Even in the best of times, their income rates are low and savings, non-existent. This project attempts to identify the issues, which affected the migrant labourers during lockdown. Data was collected from 63 migrant workers using a structured questionnaire. The respondents were workers who had migrated from places such as North Karnataka, Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh to Bengaluru. Data was collected from different parts of North Bengaluru. During the survey, it was found that earning was the factor that majorly affected their state of living. This study and subsequent analysis showed that migrants were content with their increased wages and job assurances given by their employers.