ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected each and every segment of human population all over this globe in one way or another, but out of all, the most severely affected are the frontline workers. The psychological trauma in frontline workers varies greatly according to their job profile, personal domestic conditions, working conditions, age and gender among the other variables. This paper will attempt to delineate the struggles, fears, anxieties and ground problems of the frontline workers in India which are silently engulfing them. The study will first try to define the word ‘frontline’ in the Indian context, and then will closely observe the problems of each working group. The focus area of this paper will be the psychological impact of the ongoing trauma inflicted by Covid-19 on the frontline workers in the prevailing conditions in India.
Despite the general grouping of the workers under the umbrella term ‘frontline’, it is very well understood that struggles peculiar to the finer demarcations of categories within the categories like ‘women-workers’, ‘young women workers’, ‘young single parent women workers’, ‘contractual women workers’ cannot be overlooked or put into one bracket, as all the categories/ groups have their own general as well as individual vulnerabilities. In this paper an attempt will be made to offer general but close observation of the ways in which this catastrophe is taking its course and violating the overall wellbeing of the caretakers in hideous ways. In Indian context where psychological traumas often go unattended, the need for dedicated research in this field is more than ever sought in these times, because frontline workers are the backbone of our healthcare community. The study will be based on one-to-one talk with frontline workers such as ASHA workers, Aganwadi workers, Nurses, Doctors, Policemen, Garbage/rag-pickers and ambulance drivers. In the paper, observations from recent important studies are incorporated and are made the basis for highlighting the gravity of situation and need for emphasising the further research in this area.
