Impact of COVID 19 Pandemic on the Quality of Life of Migrant Slum Dwellers of India: a Qualitative Study in Delhi State

Abstract

Background: During the COVID pandemic, migrant workers had experienced harsh livelihood and socio-economic crises which amplified their challenges of life and significantly affected their mental health. However, there is a lack of in-depth evidence on how the mental trauma and shock of the loss of job and livelihood crisis affected men and women migrant workers differently. This study aimed to explore the impact of the COVID pandemic and lockdown on migrant workers who had faced psycho-social and financial challenges during the pandemic and lockdown and the effects of these challenges on their health. Methods: A formative research method comprising of iterative approach was used by conducting in-depth interviews of men and women migrant workers residing in randomly selected 2 blocks of a slum called Madanpur Khadar JJ Colony of Delhi, India. The respondents were chosen using a respondent driven purposive sampling depending on those who had faced severe loss during the pandemic. The migrant workers were interviewed about their challenges until saturation point was reached. In total 25 men and 25 women migrant workers were interviewed. Results: The financial constraints due to loss of employment, closing down of small scale self employment ventures, salary cuts and loans, threw life out of gear, further marginalizing the already disadvantaged community, who live from hand to mouth. To further aggravate the damage, COVID brought with it social stigma, discrimination, fear, stress, and anxiety. Women migrant workers bore the brunt of the burden of household responsibilities, increased demand without support and emotional abuse at home. Conclusions: There is an urgent need for unified social protection system with preventive, promotion-stricken, protective, and transformational measures designed through a crisis-responsive lens is required to provide an ecosystem of support to migrant workers.