‘I Just Want to Go Home’: What the Lockdown Meant for India’s Inter-state Migrant Workers

The authors provide a commentary on the inter-state migrant exodus that took place after the government imposed the national lockdown to control the transmission of COVID-19 infection. The lives of the inter-state migrant workers were seriously disrupted when the national lockdown was imposed. The authors bring into focus the inequalities of our times that resulted in serious human right violations. Migrant laborers were the hardest hit during the pandemic. Migrants and their families were pushed to starvation, deprivation, and destitution. The authors study this problem from a rights-based perspective.The unprecedented lockdown resulted in a migrant frenzy. Millions of inter-state migrants, stripped of their livelihood, were forced to flood the roads across the country in the last desperate bid to return home to their villages. Many chose to walk for weeks and weeks covering thousands of miles in their desperation to get home.The authors discuss the horror that migrants faced as they went through their journey. The nightmare that ensued was a severe violation of human rights. Bedraggled, starved, and exhausted, the exploitation and hardship that they endured along with their families continued over time.The migrant crisis not only hit the headlines in India but also drew the attention of world media.