Urban industry in India seems to have disowned its own muscle – the labourers – who were driving the wheels of the economy and urban expansion. The COVID-19 situation exposes how inequality is entrenched in neoliberal urban design and how it jeopardises the future of urban economics in India. As over 50 million migrant labourers languish in deep distress, face subhuman conditions, walk thousands of kilometres back home, it is critical to understand how unjust and inequitable our urban evolution has been and more importantly, what will the ramifications be of this mass exodus on our cities, towns, economic zones. Equally important to understand are the likely impacts on rural economies and development, as this disjunction and rupture now threatens to economically isolate these spaces.
