Female Migrant Workers in Conflict with Life and Livelihood Amid COVID-19: Violence and Gendered Crisis

Abstract

This article explores the gendered impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women migrant workers and their families in terms of loss of livelihood resulting in a debt trap while endangering life, responsibility stress, restricted geographic moves, shattered access and scarce support. Employing the quantitative research method, a survey of 122 women migrant workers from five underprivileged districts of West Bengal, India, was conducted. The analysis revealed that there has been a significant variation in women migrant workers’ income level as well as in the level of violence they were exposed to during the pandemic in comparison to the pre-pandemic phase. The level of violence also has a negative monotonic relationship with their husbands’ income. The findings of the study also confirm that income, family structure, financial support and so on significantly influence violence towards women. These findings have implications for developing policies and programmes to ensure the secured employment for and safety of women.