Poverty, Provisioning and the Pandemic: Income and Food Insecurity Among Waste Picker Households During the 2020 Lockdown in Delhi

Abstract

The containment measures during the COVID-19 pandemic have had severe economic consequences on the lives of the urban informal poor in India. Several scholars have commented on the vital yet insufficient role that government-run food relief programmes, mutual aid practices and private charity have played in addressing hunger during lockdown periods. This article investigates the impact of lockdown measures on food security among waste pickers in nine Delhi neighbourhoods through an analysis of data collected from daily telephone surveys with 70 adult and 69 child waste pickers over a 54-day period. Analysis of this data reveals that while respondents relied heavily on emergency food relief programmes, their sense of hunger was closely connected to their ability to provide food for themselves. Drawing on these insights, the article concludes by offering policy and programmatic recommendations to address food security problems for the urban poor in general.