Dalit Occupations and Existence at the Time of COVID-19 in West Bengal

In India there are dalit community members across the nation. In West Bengal almost constitute 25 percent of the state population. These dalit peoples of West Bengal living scattered in several districts of West Bengal are the worst victims and sufferers of Covid-19 pandemic and its consequent lockdown. The introduction of lockdown in March 2019 to combat Covid-19 became even worse condition for the dalit living merely as wage earners across the state. The complete lockdown in March 2019 meant that the daily wagerdalit involved in all sorts of work, cannot do their routine work and cannot continue to live in the same fashion that they did before the advent of Covid-19 and its consequent lockdown. The appearance of Covid-19 pandemic changed the course of the life pattern of the dalit communities living across West Bengal and also in the whole nation. They struggled to survive in such a peculiar time where living became tremendously hard.