Migrant Crisis and Economic Reforms during Covid-19 in India: A Critical Analysis

Global pandemic (COVID-19) creates a socio-economic and health crisis in a country. A real test is placed upon the central and state legislation to overcome these obstacles with adequate mechanisms at hand. Though the Government of India rightly initiated lockdown in the country as a safety measure to combat the virus, it failed to consider the effects on migrants. The country witnessed an exodus of migrants as they lacked adequate means to sustain themselves during the lockdown. As a result of the non-registration of migrant workmen under the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979, the government was unsuccessful in catering to the needs of the migrants. Firstly, the paper seeks to analyze the lacunae present in the said Act and puts forth various measures with the help of various reports, such as widening the ambit of the Act, increasing labour inspections and incentive-based regulation in the unorganized informal sector. Secondly, the paper briefly analyses the current trend of State legislatures to suspend the majority of labour laws in the country. The paper explains a correlation between the competitive nature of State legislatures to loosen the regulation and their detrimental effect on labour rights. This creates a situation of ‘Race to the bottom’ to attract more foreign investment into the state.