Socio-Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Women Migrant Workers: Evidence from 12 Indian States

This report, published in June 2021, is written by Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis and Suvir Chandna of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) India. The report studies the socio-economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on women migrant workers in India. It emphasises the importance of designing social protection measures for them in four areas: “…food security, cash assistance, government health insurance and protection against domestic violence.”The report contains the findings of a survey of 10,161 women migrant workers – with an average age of 31 years – from 12 states in India, which are Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.According to Census 2011, these states reported high levels of out-migration and constituted about 68 per cent of the total population of India. The survey was conducted in December 2020 by 10 organisations appointed by UNDP India, through phone and in-person interviews at workplaces and quarantine centres.