1st Edition
Media, Migrants and the Pandemic in India A Reader
The national lockdown to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in India resulted in the loss of work and displacement of thousands of urban migrant workers. This book records the arduous journey home for many of these workers and analyses the grave effects the pandemic has had on jobs, livelihoods, and the health of urban migrant workers.
A rich compilation of deep analytical articles by journalists, academics, lawyers, and social activists, this book explores various facets of the crisis as it unfolded. It examines the welfare policies of state and central governments and discusses the role of the judiciary and the public policy response to the unemployment, health risks, and mass migration of workers. It also offers readers a better understanding of the complexities of the migrant crisis, how it unfolded, and how it was addressed by the media.
This timely and prescient book will be of great interest to the general reader as well as researchers and students of media studies, journalism, sociology, law, public policy, labour and economics, welfare economics, gender studies, and development studies.
List of figures
List of tables
List of contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction
BHARAT BHUSHAN
PART 1
Lost in counting 9
1.1 Faceless and dispossessed: India’s circular migrants in the times of COVID-19
PRIYA DESHINGKAR
1.2 How many casual workers in the cities have sought to go home?
NOMAAN MAJID
1.3 Migration in India and the impact of the lockdown on migrants
MADHUNIKA IYER
1.4 Labour Commissioner puts total number of migrant workers at 26 lakh, says 10% in relief camps
GAURAV VIVEK BHATNAGAR
PART 2
Abandoned by law
2.1 Why India’s legal and labour system needs to be reconfigured to really help migrant workers
SATVIK VARMA
2.2 COVID-19 crisis exposes India’s neglect of informal workers
JENNY SULFATH AND BALU SUNILRAJ
2.3 National Commission for Women: Advisory to address needs of internal women migrants in India during COVID-19 lockdown
2.4 How the Supreme Court and the High Courts have dealt with the worst migrant crisis faced by the nation
EJAZ MAQBOOL, AKRITI CHAUBEY, AND MOHAMMAD ISA HAKIM
2.5 Migrant workers, the lockdown, and the judiciary
HARSH MANDER
2.6 Justice Madan Lokur: Supreme Court deserves an “F” grade for its handling of migrants
MADAN B. LOKUR
2.7 Women workers in labour codes
INDRANI MAZUMDAR AND NEETHA N. PILLAI
PART 3
The long march home
3.1 No train. No bus. Just a rickety cycle to cover 600 km – on an empty stomach
SUPRIYA SHARMA
3.2 Nightmare on Shramik Specials
V. SRIDHAR
3.3 Not just the Aurangabad accident, 383 people have died due to the punitive lockdown
KABIR AGARWAL
3.4 As Manipuri workers return home from Goa, what does the future hold for Baby Emmanuel Quarentino?
NANDITA HAKSAR
3.5 COVID-19: Odia women migrants suffer mental stress, feel nobody heeds their plight
RAKHI GHOSH
3.6 Between household abuse and employer apathy, domestic workers bear the brunt of lockdown
DEEPANSHU MOHAN, KENSIYA KENNEDY, MANSI SINGH, AND SHIVANI AGARWAL
3.7 Social distancing and sex workers in India
PRIYANKA TRIPATHI AND CHHANDITA DAS
PART 4
No wages, no jobs, no food
4.1 Can the State let employers walk away from lockdown wages?
BHARAT BHUSHAN
4.2 Hunger grows as India’s lockdown kills jobs
RAHUL LAHOTI, AMIT BASOLE, ROSA ABRAHAM, SURBHI KESAR, AND
PAARITOSH NATH
4.3 COVID-19: Intra-state migrants marooned too
BHANUPRIYA RAO
4.4 Bihar’s migrants return to face stigma, under-prepared medical facilities
PARUL AGRAWAL
4.5 Across India, workers complain that employers used lockdown to defraud them of wages they are owed
RAJIV KHANDELWAL
4.6 India cannot fight a pandemic with police lathis. It must ensure people have food – and dignity
SUPRIYA SHARMA
4.7 Differently abled migrant women workers grapple with the pandemic
VEDIKA KAKAR
4.8 Pandemic crisis: “Migrant home-based women workers work 8 hours/day for Rs 10–15”
CENNY THOMAS AND NIVEDITA JAYARAM
4.9 Pandemic-induced return of the migrant workers: Response of West Bengal
DEBASHIS AICH
PART 5
Pandemic as an opportunity: Changing labour laws
5.1 May Day: Twelve-hour working day notifications
JANE COX
5.2 Changes in labour laws will turn the clock back by over a century
RAMAPRIYA GOPALAKRISHNAN
5.3 Labour law changes: Innocuous mistakes, sleight of hand, or taking sides
ATUL SOOD AND PAARITOSH NATH
5.4 Why Adityanath’s simplistic Migration Commission is a non-starter
JUHIE SINGH
5.5 Can labour reforms help women migrant workers during COVID-19?
ELLINA SAMANTROY
PART 6
Media and migrant workers: Invisible become visible
6.1 Media in the time of COVID-19
BHUPEN SINGH
6.2 How the Modi government manufactured public opinion during the migrant crisis
AMAN ABHISHEK
6.3 Not just the media, organised politics too failed India’s migrant workers
RANABIR SAMADDAR
6.4 Migrant crisis amid COVID is why we need “journalism of misery”
SMRUTI KOPPIKAR
6.5 Lawyer Apar Gupta on what the Indian Supreme Court’s order on COVID-19 coverage means for journalists
KUNAL MAJUMDER
6.6 Audit of bigotry: How Indian media vilified Tablighi Jamaat over the coronavirus outbreak
AYAN SHARMA AND CHAHAK GUPTA
Afterword: Were any lessons learnt?
BHARAT BHUSHAN
Index
Biography
Bharat Bhushan is a journalist and editor based in Delhi. He was the foundereditor of Mail Today, Executive Editor of The Hindustan Times, Editor (Delhi) of The Telegraph, Editor of Catchnews .com , and Editor (Express News Service) and Washington Correspondent for The Indian Express. He writes on foreign policy and national politics. His other assignments include working as Assistant Editor for Business India and The Times of India and as Senior Academic Consultant for the Indian Council for Social Science Research.
