ABSTRACT
Migration from Bihar in search of a livelihood has become a commonly accepted phenomenon over the past several decades. However, the plight of the migrant workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic has raised many serious questions. In this chapter, we attempt to understand why Bihar continues to be one of the topmost areas of ‘origin’ for migrant workers despite registering ‘high growth rates’ over the past two decades. While we examine the reasons why the unemployment rate in Bihar remained higher than the national average and why agriculture has become more and more unviable over the years, the main focus of this chapter is to analyse why the present development discourse, despite the important role played by the migrant workers, has kept it tied to the idea of marginality and has not been able to address their concerns.
