ABSTRACT
The Government of India (GOI) started to respond to the migrant crisis with executive decisions which were, not surprisingly, insensitive to gender needs. Starting 27 March 2020, several orders were issued by the GOI to curb movement of migrants who, faced with loss of work and no income to meet their daily food requirements, had no option but to throng to railway stations and bus stands or hit the highways, in an effort to return to their homes/source areas. Official responses, even as they referred to ‘stranded migrants’, remained frozen in the frame of maintaining ‘law and order’. These failed to accord dignity to men and women, whose hard labour had significantly contributed to the profits of the corporate world. While migration has a long history, India has seen a huge increase in its scale since the adoption of neoliberal policies. This has its roots in agrarian distress, which has visibly deepened since the 1990s.
