Coronasphere

This book presents a broad overview of the challenges posed by COVID-19 in India and its neighboring countries. It studies the differing responses to COVID-19 infections across South Asia, the variegated impact of the pandemic on its societies, communities and economies, and emerging challenges which require an interdisciplinary understanding and analysis.

With a range of case studies from India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka, this book,

• Analyses the socio-economic impact of the pandemic, including the structural challenges faced by farmers in the agricultural production and migrant workers in the informal sectors;

• Examines the shifting trends in migration and displacement during the pandemic;

• Explores the precarity faced by LGBTQ+, transgender, Dalit, tribal, senior citizens, and other marginalized communities during the pandemic;

• Discusses the gendered impact of the pandemic on women and girls, combining with multiple and intersecting inequalities like race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, age, geographical location, and sexual orientation;

• Sheds light on the position of health infrastructure and healthcare services across different countries, and the transitions experienced in their education sectors as well, in response to COVID-19.

A holistic read on the pandemic, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of sociology, medical anthropology, sociology of health, pandemic and health studies, political studies, social anthropology, public policy, and South Asian studies.

Reshmi Banerjee is a political scientist based in London, UK and is currently a visiting research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi, India. She was previously an academic visitor at the Asian Studies Centre (Programme on Modern Burmese Studies) in St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, a post-doctoral fellow at the department of international relations, University of Indonesia (UI) and a researcher in the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jakarta. She has been a visiting professor in Jamia Millia Islamia and a fellow in the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies and has taught in Delhi University and in the University of Indonesia. She completed her MA, M. Phil and Ph. D from the Centre for Political Studies (CPS), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.

With a specialization in food security, agricultural policies and cross-border studies on the Indo-Myanmar region, she is the author of Land Conflicts across Frontiers: Contested Spaces in Myanmar and North East India (2018), and has co-edited three books: Fixed Borders, Fluid Boundaries – Identity, Resources and Mobility in Northeast India (Routledge, 2020), Gender, Poverty and Livelihood in the Eastern Himalayas (Routledge, 2017) and Climate Change in the Eastern Himalaya: Impact on Livelihoods, Growth and Poverty (2015). She also has a Masters in museum cultures from Birkbeck, University of London and has worked as a volunteer with the London Museum of Water and Steam. In 2022, she published 12 Months (a short memoir) and Potpourri: Yearning and Learning ( a collection of essays on travel).

Chandan Kumar Sharma is Professor of Sociology at Tezpur University. He did his B.A. from Cotton College, Guwahati and M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Delhi School of Economics, Delhi. His research areas include development, environment, urbanization, migration and identity politics with special reference to northeast India and he has published his works in various journals and edited volumes. He was a Charles Wallace Visiting Fellow to Queen’s University, Belfast in 2008. He has also been a visiting fellow to several Indian Universities including Delhi School of Economics and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). He is the founder editor of Explorations, the e–journal of the Indian Sociological Society. His latest publications include Fixed Borders, Fluid Boundaries: Identity Resources and Mobility in Northeast India (Routledge, 2020) (co-edited).