A major impact of the pandemic imposed lockdowns was the changing landscape of mobility. In the Indian case, unorganized migrants who had moved for work were the most impacted, especially in terms of incomes and also in terms of sector or industry of work. Of these, the largest share of migration for work came from the less-developed states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which were affected adversely by the strain on mobility.
Using the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) primary through surveys post-pandemic, this paper analyses the impact of the pandemic on migration flows for migrant workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in terms of the changes in incomes, nature and sector of work, and socio-economic challenges thereof. These migrants are classified into 2 categories of those who remained in the destination city during the pandemic and those who went back to their hometown during the lockdown but came back later on.
The data reveal that for both these categories, incomes post the lockdowns fell significantly as compared to the pre-Covid levels for migrants from both the states. The post-lockdown is again divided into the first lockdown phase and the phase between the first and the second lockdown. Both lockdowns had equally devastating impacts on migrant incomes, but the more significant impact was the effect on mobility industry of work. Construction work and the service sector were the most severely hit, and these are the sectors which absorb a large section of the migrant workers from these states.
In sum, while the monetary impact of the lockdowns was significant, the nature of work got affected as well, leading to more severe impacts on incomes in the ensuing time period, as well as loss of avenues of work, which also led to increase in domestic work and self-employment.
