wl-2561-Coping with the Shocks of COVID-19 through Reverse Migration in India

This paper examines the factors that determined ‘reverse migration’ of households from urban locations in India in the aftermath of a series of lockdowns that followed COVID-19 pandemic. Positioning reverse migration as a coping strategy to ameliorate negative consequences of loss of livelihood, food shortages and loss of shelter in urban India, this paper examines the factors that led to the utilization of this strategy in the aftermath of lockdown during pandemic outbreak. Examining the socio-economic, demographic and policy factors, this paper provides evidence that family support and rural social institutions such as self-help groups played crucial role in providing support system during pandemic even to those who migrated back from urban areas. Government programs such as Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and access to public distribution system were also important for reverse-migrants. An important result is that the first wave of reverse migration was due to family and emotional reasons those arose because of lockdowns, the second wave of migration was for economic reasons as households continued to struggle in urban areas, and the migration during third wave was a usual seasonal migration.