Abstract

Today, India is leading towards a phase where we are witnessing diminution in the number of new covid cases every day. This has come after the deadly first two waves of the pandemic in the year 2020 and 2021. But these two waves have brought irreversible changes in the lives of the many people and especially the migrants. The world community is apprehending the fourth wave of covid and that too with a new variant. This compels us to relook at those situations which we faced in the starting of the covid and the plight which the migrants had to suffer due to the lockdown, as one can never say that when can India again witness partial or complete lockdown, as the cases are, once again, rising and we are at the verge of the fourth wave. We must keep in mind the effect of drastic step of lockdown on social security schemes and this can be done by critically analysing that how this scheme was affected in the past, as it is said that History is the best teacher for future lessons. During Covid -19 pandemic, the country faced a nationwide lockdown in the year 2020. Everything came to a halt, and people and were thrown into uncertainties regarding their job security. People working in the unorganized sector were most affected by this pandemic. This led to the battle for survival for themselves and their dependents. This, unfortunately, gave rise to a country-wide migration of laborers and workers to their hometowns and villages. Few of them resorted to agriculture for their survival, but some, who were probably landless and due to other factors, resorted to MGNREGA. Now the question is that up to what extent has this Scheme proved itself? Did it manage to employ migrants? Or Did it fail as a scheme to support the group of the population dependent on it? This article will try to answer these questions, w.r.t migrants of Haryana who worked in unorganised sector to determine whether such kinds of beneficial schemes actually work at the ground level at the time of need or do they fail altogether in those times. The paper will try to find out that whether the dependency on MGNREGA of migrants of Haryana increased during the lockdown.

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