Abstract: India’s lockdown amid coronavirus has forced the migrant laborers to face the worst of their times, with a mass
displacement of the population the country has ever witnessed after partition. As the pandemic exacerbates the “chronic
crisis”, India struggles to contain virus in hotspots and prevent it from spreading to the sensitive rural areas. An influx of
migrant workers from different states to their villages has posed a new challenge for the state governments and the
Centre to restrict the further spread of the virus in rural areas. While the laborers have been crippled financially with
livelihoods of the millions of migrants ruined, the challenge to sustain with virus and overcome through it seems a
difficult task for them and the states.
The government of India has announced two economic aid packages to support the migrants and the MSMEs ever since
the lockdown began. The first one announced (Rs 1.7 lakh crore) on March 26 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
was inclined towards providing direct support to the poor to see them through the shutdown period, the second mega 20
lakhs crore package instilled a new wave of positivity and vouched for providing a support to MSMEs by making them
self-reliant. So, what does this economic aid means for the migrants who are at the brink of facing an uncertain future
and will the displacement be ever compensated with government’s economic aid which is too little and too late?
Keywords: Covid-19, pandemic, migrants, coronavirus, health.