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
