COVID-19 and high-skilled workers: Experiences and perspectives from India

Abstract

Novel Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has been in the news since the beginning of the year 2020 and within a couple of months of its origination, it was declared as ‘global pandemic’ by WHO. The pandemic has a substantial economic impact and has attracted wide attention from various scholars and policymakers across the globe. Though a lot has been mentioned about the economic implications of the pandemic, very few attempts have been made to address the impact of the pandemic on psycho-social and mental well being. Moreover, numerous attempts have been made to understand and analyse the impact on unskilled and low paid workers, less work has been initiated in a direction to understand the impact on skilled professionals who as well are not untouched by the impact of the pandemic. With this given background, the study tries to fill this void. The main objective of the study is to comprehend the socio-psychological impact of COVID-19 on the high-skilled labourers, including women workers in the Indian context. The study puts forth high-skilled migrants’ perspective on various sociological amd psychological aspects. An exhaustive literature review has been done to disentangle existing thoughts. To substantiate the findings from the literature and to meet the objectives primary survey was conducted targetting 30 odd skilled workers across various occupations. The study also offers suggestions and policy recommendations for government and policymakers for framing inclusive policies across migrant segments.