From Survival to Resilience: Understanding Post-Pandemic Realities, Quality of life and Coping Mechanisms of Informal Workers in India’s Most Backward Region of Karnataka State– A Social Work Perspective

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacted India’s informal workforce, particularly in socio-economically marginalized regions like Kalyana Karnataka. This study explores the post-pandemic realities of urban informal workers—such as drivers, vendors, barbers, and tailors—across four districts in the region: Raichur, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, and Koppal. Based on a human rights and ecological social work perspective, the study examines the economic impacts of lockdowns, such as loss of income, job insecurity, and being in debt, and explores their psychological and social implications. Particular emphasis is placed on the coping strategies utilized by these workers, such as adaptive (problem-solving, communal orientation) and maladaptive (emotional withdrawal, substance misuse) forms. The research also explores awareness, availability, and take-up of government welfare schemes like direct benefit transfers and relief packages and finds that procedural logjams, absence of documents, and digital illiteracy constrained the effectiveness of the schemes. In spite of institutional failures, robust informal support structures—made up of family networks, peer groups, and community-based organizations—proved to be key factors determining resilience and recovery. Using a cross-sectional quantitative design and first-hand field data from 384 respondents, the research demonstrates that recovery outcomes were influenced greatly by gender, caste, occupation, and mobile phone ownership variables. The results point to the importance of targeted, locally situated social work interventions that incorporate mental health care, welfare brokerage, and community-level engagement. This study advances the knowledge of disaster resilience among the informal sector and offers practical recommendations for policymakers, practitioners, and social workers to develop more inclusive and responsive support systems for vulnerable people in India.