The social question in urban-centric growth models: how durable inequalities in India exasperated COVID-19 interventions

Unplanned urbanization is an integral part of the economic growth story that took place in India since the early 1990s. While poverty was substantially reduced in absolute terms due to the emergence of urban agglomerations and opportunities there, inequality has risen. Social structures of durable inequalities such as caste, gender and land deprivation pushed the rural population to flock urban areas to seek alternate livelihood opportu- nities. However, unplanned living conditions, with higher propensity for virus infection in urban areas, forced the migrants to flee towards their native villages, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. This paper is examining whether social policy responses are sufficient to deal with the social question emerging from India’s urban-centric growth models. We empirically examine the social policy interventions during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic to find an answer to this question. The first wave of the pandemic (March-Oc- tober 2020) created a livelihood crisis with the exodus of migrants from cities to rural locations. The second wave of the pandemic (March-May 2021) that created a health crisis which exhibited the shortage of health infrastructure in the country, is not examined as part of this paper.

History has shown that pandemics and humanitarian crises have provided opportunities to ignite ideas of social policy, and to build institutions for intervention. Examining the social policy interventions during the COVID-19 crisis in India, enables countries in the Global South to rethink the strategy of economic growth based on urban-centric models.