Significance of migration to the COVID 19 outbreaks in major states in India

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.