R.R.Vivin & E. Anushaa Gayathri, VIT University Chennai (VITSOL)
ABSTRACT
To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, governments throughout the world have introduced emergency measures that constrain individual freedoms, social and economic rights and global solidarity. These regulatory measures have closed schools, workplaces and transit systems, cancelled public gatherings, introduced mandatory home confinement and deployed large- scale electronic surveillance. In doing so, human rights obligations are rarely addressed, despite how significantly they are impacted by the pandemic response. The norms and principles of human rights should guide government responses to COVID-19, with these rights strengthening the public health response to COVID-19.
The migrant workers were the worst hit by this pandemic. With no means of transportation and accommodation, they, along with children and pregnant women, had to travel hundreds of miles on foot. This not only exposes them to the risk of contracting the virus but also to the wrath of the police enforcing COVID-19 regulations.
Many migrant workers lost their employment on short notice because of the nationwide lockdown. As most labourers earn daily wages, in lockdown they found themselves facing adversities without sufficient resources and knowledge. The government should have intervened to safeguard them, but, instead, it suspended many of the laws that safeguard their labour rights.
