PROtecting the WELLbeing of MIGRANTS in India during the COVID-19 pandemic (PROWELLMIGRANTS)

全世界约有10亿人生活在贫民窟中，其中包括全球南部约30-50%的城市人口（Lilford et al. 2017）。在印度，与全球南方的其他国家类似，人们从农村地区迁移到城市寻找季节性工作后，往往在非正式定居点定居。这些移民人口大多在非正规部门工作，被排除在医疗保健和社会保障体系之外。此外，污名化、强制疏散和结构性虐待导致对政府的不信任（Ayeb-Karlsson et al. 2016，2020）。在印度，媒体已经报道了去年3月在孟买一个不到一平方公里的贫民窟中发现的首例COVID-19病例。可以想象，世卫组织的COVID-19指导方针，即两米的物理距离和20秒的肥皂洗手几乎是不可能的（Kluge et al. 2020）。这项研究的目的是定性调查COVID-19对印度移民福祉和心理健康的影响。印度的移徙者（主要是季节性和临时移徙者）是该国非正规劳动力的重要组成部分，由于突然封锁而受到严重影响。许多人最终无家可归，因为他们被赶出了雇主为他们提供的住所。由于交通服务关闭，他们被迫步行数周或数月才能回家。路障最终将他们困在各州之间，迫使他们在拥挤的公共广场寻找庇护所和食物。在此背景下，我们（1）调查印度的整体COVID-19应对措施如何影响移民劳工的心理健康和福祉;（2）研究移民生计的冲击如何影响他们的福祉;（三）提出政策和实践建议，以加强现有的卫生系统，更好地支持未来的流行病应对。了解这一流行病对全球南方社会所引发的变化和冲击。印度政府因其应对这一流行病的方式、缺乏对其最弱势群体的社会保障以及侵犯人权而受到全球批评。至关重要的是，要迅速和严格地评估对移民的直接和长期影响，特别关注心理健康、福祉和生计。这将有助于确定目前需要哪些支持来解决生计和心理健康问题，以及今后如何改进地方、国家和国际应对措施。

About a billion people around the world live in slums, including roughly 30–50% of the urban population in the Global South (Lilford et al. 2017). In India, similarly to other countries in the Global South, people often settle down in informal settlements upon their arrival in cites after having migrated from rural areas in search for seasonal work. Most of these migrant populations work in informal sectors and are left out of the healthcare and social safeguarding systems. Further, stigma, forced evacuations and structural mistreatment cause mistrust for the government (Ayeb-Karlsson et al. 2016, 2020). In India, the media already reported the first case of COVID-19 in a slum with 23,000 people in less than a square kilometre in Mumbai in March last year. Imaginably, WHO’s COVID-19 guidelines of two metres physical distancing and 20 seconds of hand washing with soap was almost impossible (Kluge et al. 2020).The aim of this research is to qualitatively investigate the impact of COVID-19 upon migrants’ wellbeing and mental health in India. Migrants (mainly seasonal and temporary) in India who form a crucial part of the national informal labour forces were severely affected due to the sudden lockdown. Many ended up homeless as they were evicted out of accommodation provided to them by their employing industries. As transportation services shut down, they were forced to walk for weeks and months to get home. The roadblocks ended up trapping them in between states forcing them to seeking shelter and food in overcrowded public squares. In this context, we (1) investigate how the overall COVID-19 response in India impacted the mental health and wellbeing of migrant labours; (2) Examine how shocks to migrant livelihoods impacted their wellbeing; (3) Propose policy and practice recommendations that can strengthen existing health systems and better support pandemic responses in the future.The Indian context and events represent an important case study to better understand the changes and shocks triggered by the pandemic upon societies in the Global South. The Indian Government was globally criticized for the way they responded to the pandemic, for their lack of social protection of their most vulnerable populations and for violating human rights. It will be crucial to rapidly and critically evaluate the immediate and longer-term impacts upon migrants with a specific focus on mental health, wellbeing and livelihoods. This will help draw out what support is required to address livelihood and mental health concerns now as well as how local, national and international responses can be improved in the future.