Vulnerabilities of Private Healthcare Workers in Pune During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic can be understood as a social disaster that generated varying forms of vulnerabilities and exposed the structural unevenness of lived experiences in different parts of the world. One of the significant areas where these inequalities can be mapped is the healthcare sector in India. The pandemic brought to the fore the role of healthcare workers, who significantly contributed towards the mitigation of risks associated with the virus but whose experiences and challenges have not received adequate attention. This article illustrates the experiences of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, showing that their pre-existing vulnerabilities were exacerbated during the pandemic. Foregrounding the experiences of private sector healthcare workers in the city of Pune during the pandemic, the article highlights the precarity of life and work for this understudied segment of the healthcare sector. It suggests that structural inequalities continued to be intensified during the pandemic, thus leading to an unjust and unequal distribution of risks in society.