ABSTRACT
The novel coronavirus pandemic has struck the world-economy in a way no other crisis had done before. Six weeks after the national lockdown was imposed, when trains were finally organized to take migrant workers home, the Karnataka state government refused to let them go because construction companies were anxious not to lose their labour, effectively confining them to their jobs in serf-like conditions. In many places, the lockdown has led to an increase in incidence of domestic violence as women and children are confined to their homes, and often deprived of their phones and thus unable to ask for assistance. If the disproportionate impact on the poor is similar to prior pandemics and crises, it is not at all clear how world-economy will emerge out of it. Responding to collapse of stock markets, governments are pumping money into the economy but when people are ordered to stay home, circulation of money slows down as well – especially for small businesses.
