Covid-19: Redrawn Borders, Redefined Lives – A Report

 On 8th July 2020, the Calcutta Research Group (CRG), in collaboration with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung   and Institute of Human Sciences, Vienna, organised a webinar which sought to address the sudden visibility of India’s migrant workers and questions regarding borders, inequality, public health and care. Keeping in mind that the coronavirus pandemic has emerged not simply as a public health and economic crisis but also as one that has thrown migrant workers into deep turmoil, the webinar sought to interrogate issues of movement, sovereignty, governance, and borders between people, societies and states. Annesha Saha reports.

Report on ‘CoVid-19 : Public Health and the Sudden Visibility of Migrant Workers’

Migrant laborers are not an anomaly in Indian society and almost everybody is aware of their existence and the work they do. However, it is the current socioeconomic and health crisis brought on by the pandemic Covid-19 which has amplified our focus on these otherwise ignored migrant laborers and the difficulties they have to face. Social media, news as well as public opinion has varied greatly on the issue but there seems to be a consensus on the fact that India probably saw a great many deaths of these laborers before an equal number of people died due to Covid-19. Due to the sudden lockdown of all transport systems, lack of information and a great amount of mismanagement on the part of the states as well as central authority – many of these laborers have had to undertake inter-state journeys on foot with all their belongings on their shoulders. This has been extensively captured and documented by the media which has then shaped public opinion. In such a context where these migrant laborers are suddenly under the spotlight, Ranabir Samaddar and Samita Sen spoke in a webinar titled ‘CoVid-19 : Public Health and the Sudden Visibility of Migrant Workers’, organized by CRG (as part of its webinar series #bordersofanepidemic). Sukanya Bhattacharya reports on the webinar organized on 12^th June, 2020.

Report on a webinar with Balakrishnan Madhavan Kutty, on Kerala’s CoVid 19 response

A short report by Rajat Kanti Sur on  a Webinar on Public Policy Lessons from Kerala’s COVID-19 Response by Balakrishnan Madhavan Kutty, Rural Development Expert, World Bank and special envoy to Kerala, organised by USIEF on 8th May, 2020. 

Bringing the border home: India Partition 2020

Samata Biswas writes about the social distance India maintains from its migrant workers,  redrawing the borders that govern our lives. 

A Report: How One State can Learn from Another – Migrant Workers in Kolkata

 

Swati Bhattacharjee and Abhijnan Sarkar take stock of the situation of two groups of migrant workers in Kolkata, and try to assess what could be done for them.

Glimpses of Life in the Time of Corona

Madhurilata Basu and Sibaji Pratim Basu undertake a survey of the experiences of migrant healthcare workers and politics of communalisation that constitutes India’s response to the novel Coronavirus. 

Social Distancing, “Touch-Me-Not” and the Migrant Worker

As part of CRG’s publication on the Covid 19 pandemic and migrant workers, Ishita Dey writes about migrants who perform intimate labour, perceived as a threat, embodying fear of spreading contamination, facing new challenges of ostracization and social stigma.

A conference on the State of the Global Protection System for Refugees and Migrants, 2018: Impressions and Outcomes

Aditi Mukherjee writes a report on the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group conference dealing with protection system for refugees and migrants, organised in Kolkata, India, in November 2018.

Fourth Annual Research and Orientation Workshop in Refugee and Migration Studies

Applications are invited for a Research and Orientation Workshop to be held in Kolkata from 25 November to 29 November 2019. The workshop will be organised by the Calcutta Research Group (CRG) in collaboration with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. It will address issues of protection for refugees and migrants, gender, race, religion and other faultlines in the protection regime, neo-liberalism and migrant labour, statelessness, borderlands and the Indian and South Asian experiences in a global context.

‘There is a celebratory tone to all these human rights violations’: An Interview with Anuradha Bhasin

Anuradha Bhasin is Executive Editor, Kashmir Times. She is a writer and a peace activist involved in campaigns for human rights’ violation victims in Kashmir, crimes against women as well as India-Pakistan friendship. Apala Kundu of CRG interviewed her in June 2018. The following is excerpted from it.