The effects of reverse migration on indigenous communities following India’s COVID-19 induced lockdown.”

PI: Nishaant Choksi

Project by: Social Science Research Council

Duration: 2020 –

This project seeks to assess the effects of reverse migration during the COVID-19 induced lockdown in 2020 on indigenous communities in real time. The project is focused around two central issues. The first is to document the relations between village residents and returning migrants in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. It examines how residents draw on indigenous ethical conceptions of insider/outsider and local understandings of disease and contagion to exclude or re-integrate migrants back into the villages and the migrant response to such efforts. The project also assesses the economic consequences of the government’s lockdown on indigenous villages, particularly in light of the drying up of remittance money from migrant labor, the extra population burden, and the disruption of supply chains.

Others involved (JRF, students, or collaborations)
Kalpesh Rathwa, Research Assistant (Gujarat)
Sukanya Deogam, Research Assistant (Jharkhand)