Alcune note sull’intreccio tra la pandemia di Covid-19 e la questione del lavoro nell’India neoliberista

In India, as elsewhere in the world, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has not been socially neutral. On the contrary, the pandemic has disproportionally affected the lives of the labouring classes. In the face of this scenario, this article offers a reflection upon the interplay between the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social implications of the neoliberal project in India, with particular attention to the labour universe. In so doing, the paper acknowledges the importance to question the ‘hegemonic self-representation’ of the neoliberal era, by exploring the contradictions between neoliberal ideology and neoliberal policy practices, with specific reference to labour. Starting from this premise, the article retraces the broader context against which the social implications of the pandemic need to be read, devoting attention to the renewed processes of labour informalization that have unfolded in neoliberal India, as well as to the complexity of the geographies of labour in the country. This will lead to a reflection on the plight of the labouring classes over the course of the pandemic, with specific attention to the universe of migrant labour. Finally, the article retraces some important recent developments in labour legislation in India, arguing for the urgent need to defend labour rights and bring social justice back to the centre of the political agenda.