Where is my home?: Gendered precarity and the experience of COVID‐19 among women migrant workers from Delhi and National Capital Region, India

Abstract

With growing interest in the lives of individuals and communities during the COVID‐19 pandemic, there is consensus among scholars, academicians, and policy makers that the pandemic has had unequal impacts on different sections of the society. The dominant idea that “we are in this together” needs to be critically unpacked to understand the differential impact of the same pandemic on people with varied vulnerabilities. The concept of “intersectional vulnerability” has been key to understanding the unequal distribution of the pandemic risk. Using a gendered intersectional lens, this paper aims to understand the lived experiences of migrant women workers during the pandemic and their narratives of gendered inequality. Through a narrative study in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), India, from May to October 2020, this study brings out stories of precarity faced by five migrant women while battling the social, psychological, and economic effects of the pandemic. Loss of livelihood, home, savings, and prospects of a better future shape the narratives of these women. The pandemic exacerbated the already precarious positions of these women by creating a situation where—(a) patriarchal structures were further reinforced, and (b) losing gender solidarity and companionship through lockdown and social distancing.

Indian female migrants face greater barriers to post−Covid recovery than males: Evidence from a panel study

“…While our survey did not capture measures of psychological well-being, the sustained levels of economic distress we observe suggest that returned migrants – especially women – may have suffered lasting socio-emotional challenges, in line with earlier research pointing to acute short-term distress. 2 , 35 , 36 , 38 , 39 , 41 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 Understanding the longer-term implications for psychological well-being is therefore an important area for future research.…”

Bangladeshi women migrants amidst the COVID‐19 pandemic: Revisiting globalization, dependency and gendered precarity in South–South labour migration

“…Women migrants’ social dislocation and marginalization in a predominantly patriarchal social and economic setting position them as highly vulnerable compared to their male counterparts (Arora, 2020 ). Considering migrant women's role in domestic work, such intersection of class, gender and identity is perhaps more consequential due to their invisibility and power asymmetry between them and their employers (Arora & Majumdar, 2021 ).…”

“…In a similar vein, several studies have already started tracing the gendered experiences of both internal and international women migrants in South Asia (i.e. Arora & Majumdar, 2021 ; Bhagat et al., 2020 ; de Haan, 2020 ; Jesline et al., 2021 ; Patel, 2021 ; Weeraratne, 2020 ). These studies broadly outline how the pandemic has exacerbated their living and working conditions in their place of destination concerning the gross violation of labour standards, health risk, arbitrary return, unequal wages, long working hours, wage‐theft and violation of fundamental human rights.…”

“…In light of such troubling circumstances, gender has emerged as one of the most crucial intersecting factors to underline how the COVID‐19 pandemic has acutely exposed and deepened socio‐economic and structural inequalities globally (Arora & Majumdar, 2021 ; Kabeer et al., 2021 ; Siddiqui, 2021 ). Once famously depicted as the ‘servants of Globalisation’ (Parreñas, 2015 ), there is growing global evidence of how discrimination, inequalities and gender‐based violence against migrant women has increased manifold amid the pandemic (Al‐Ali, 2020 ; Aoun, 2020 ; Azeez et al., 2021 ; Bahn et al., 2020 ; Foley & Piper, 2020 ; Lokot & Bhatia, 2020 ; Sharma & Borah, 2020 ).…”

SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic and Food Safety Oversight: Implications in Canada and Coping Strategies

“…It was reported during the pandemic that many workers live in cramped unsanitary accommodation. In Canada, similarly, adverse living and working conditions have ensured the occupational transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among its agricultural workers [74]. For probably the first time, the scope of how enterprises managed risks had to include living conditions for workers, and not just operations and facilities which were frequently inspected.…”