Many realities, one world: Dharavi, stranded migrants, and the lockdown in India

Abstract

In India a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of COVID has stranded 600 million internal migrants, laborers who move within the country from its underdeveloped regions to cities and production hubs. My own experience of the pandemic in Michigan has prompted reflections on links between past experiences with an educational project for children in a slum in Mumbai and the situation of stranded migrants in India today. Although the pandemic knows no boundaries, some groups are disproportionately impacted and experience greater vulnerabilities. But while some stories are foregrounded, the struggles of female migrants are nearly invisible. Although “displaced” from India presently, I juxtapose earlier tacit assumptions related to Dharavi’s children with the present reality of the lockdown where gender is invisible.