Agony of survival

Marginality and refugees live side by side be it a normal situation or any kind of crisis. The COVID-19 not only multiplied the sufferings and marginalities of the refugee communities but also added and strengthened various stigmas, discriminations, and increased phobias about them. Refugees apart, the majoritarian imaginations tried to break the pandora box of COVID-19 on the heads of weaker and underprivileged sections of society which also includes the IDP COVID-19 is a virulent deadliest viral disease that spread across the world from Wuhan, China. It emerged from the family of Coronaviruses and this was the latest SARS-COV-2. It has disrupted human mobility across the national and international borders and imposed worldwide lockdown. IDP is an abridged form of an Internally displaced people/person, undocumented citizens, labour migrants, minorities, and backward classes. We have witnessed the discriminations against these people during the pandemic across the borders. Thus, COVID-19 has exposed the existing structural inequalities in our societies on the grounds of gender, caste, class, religion, race, etc. This chapter tries to analyze the situation of refugees in India during the disquieting time of the COVID-19 crisis, what challenges they face (racial, health-related, economic, political) and how did they struggle to survive through various possible means. It also underlines how legal weakness and socio-economic exclusion and misunderstandings led to the further subjugation, exploitation, and exclusion of refugees from all government schemes and social spheres. This discourse analysis takes the help of data from existing available interviews, reports, and blogs/news reports/newspapers. It also analyzes the role of national and international bodies and NGOs in mitigating the spread of this disease among refugees and helping them in difficult times and what are their challenges while assisting these deprived communities. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, S. Irudaya Rajan;individual chapters, the contributors.