In Kalahandi district, Duleshwar Tandi – ‘Rapper Dule Rocker’ – a tuition teacher, construction worker and occasional migrant, expresses anguish through this song at the plight of migrants in the Covid-19 induced-lockdown.

Many labourers from Odisha migrate to the brick kilns of Telangana, where the contractors and kiln owners exploit the desperation of the migrants. This photo-story traces the history of migration in Odisha and different migration patterns that have emerged since then.

Lambadi women in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu have painstakingly revived 'ghater', their community’s signature embroidery, and the income from this traditional skill has ended their need to migrate for work.

From Bhojpuri to Tamil to Marathi – many children like Satyam Nisad, Raghu Pal and Khushi Rahidas struggle to learn a new language and stay on in school every time their parents migrate in search of wage labour.

Across the country, the March 2020 lockdown had a disproportionate impact on migrant workers. Students of The Shri Ram School, Aravali campus, interviewed migrants who work in Gurugram as construction workers and domestic workers. They spoke to workers who had returned from their villages as well as to those who stayed on in the city – both desperate for wages to support their families back home in villages across Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Pair Rani Kumari’s story with this series of short-interviews with migrant workers in Delhi. The stories of “minute-old migrants”, those who had just arrived in the city as well as those who have been working in Delhi for some time, have something in common – they call for strategic interventions in favour of migrants in India.