Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on migrant labourers from Bihar in Hyderabad

The migration of labourers from the northern States of India to the southern States has become prominent practice for more than a decade. Workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand are employed in manufacturing and construction sectors, rice, sugar and ginning mills, and dairy industry all over Telangana, markedly in the Hyderabad city. Most of these are the sweatshop workers, who live in subhuman conditions. The sudden announcement of COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020 had not only caught them by surprise but rendered them captive unemployed and fear-stricken at workplace. This created a panic reaction out of desperation to reach home once the lockdown was relaxed. The government was not in a position to provide migrant labourers protective social security due to sheer lack of data and mechanism to reach out to them. The lack of transport and curfew had brought them untold misery. It was the civil society that had undertaken the humanitarian task of making arrangements for their return journey. This paper seeks the first-hand information on the conditions of employment of migrant workers from Bihar and their return status after the declaration of lockdown.