Significance of migration to the COVID 19 outbreaks in major states in India
International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care
ISSN: 1747-9894
Article publication date: 26 July 2021
Issue publication date: 20 September 2021
Abstract
Purpose
The spread of COVID-19 from Wuhan to the global countries has a direct association with human mobility. Perhaps, human mobility increases the hazards of COVID-19 due to its communicable characteristic of human-to-human transmission. Thus, the volume of migrants and migration may have a significant role in the outbreaks of COVID-19 in any country. Given that India homes more than 45 crores of migrants, the present study aims to examine the linkages between migration flows and COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study has used secondary sources such as data sharing portals, census, news and media reports and Web sources. The updated COVID-19 data was retrieved from the www.covid19india.org, whereas migration rates were analysed from the D-series of census 2011.
Findings
Nearly 23% of total inter-state migration occurred for the livelihood only. The numbers of cases have raised much earlier and faster in migrant's destination states than in migrant's origin states. Further, as shown in the scatterplots, that positive association between “COVID-19 and in-migration” is found to be more robust than “COVID-19 and gross-migration”. On the other hand, the migrant's origin states are also experiencing a rapid increase of COVID-19 cases due to large numbers of returning migrants. These return-migration flows have created major administrative, social and public health challenges, particularly in the origin states, and as a whole in India.
Originality/value
This paper has potential to help policy planners to identify the COVID-19 vulnerability of various states in respect to the migration perspectives. Moreover, it also enhances the understanding to establish the linkage between COVID-19 outbreaks and migration.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to express his sincere thanks to the editor of the journal and anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions and comments to improve the quality of the article.Disclosure of statement: This is to inform that the study has no potential conflict of interests.Funding: There is no specific funding received for conducting this study.
Citation
Sarkar, S. (2021), "Significance of migration to the COVID 19 outbreaks in major states in India", International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 402-413. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-09-2020-0084
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited