India's internal migrants and the first wave of COVID-19: The invisibility of female migrants

Kennedy Saldanha; Candy D'Cunha; Laura Kovick

doi:10.1016/j.ajss.2023.02.001

India's internal migrants and the first wave of COVID-19: The invisibility of female migrants

Asian J Soc Sci. 2023 Mar 6. doi: 10.1016/j.ajss.2023.02.001. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Kennedy Saldanha¹, Candy D'Cunha², Laura Kovick¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Social Work, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI, 4819.
² Andhra Loyola Institute of Engineering and Technology, Vijayawada, 520 008, India.

Abstract

This article highlights the plight of India's internal migrants during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, when media images depicted scores of these migrants hustling to return home. Using literature and newspaper searches, the article describes background factors influencing the large flows of internal migrants and the complexities of accurately defining and studying them. The study spotlights the lack of attention paid to female migrants and how gender remains a neglected dimension of migration, even though the challenges faced by female migrants are far more acute during migration, postmigration, the pandemic lockdown, and the economic fallout likely to occur following the pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Circular migrants; Female migrants; Internal migrants; Migration.