Covid-19 is an ongoing pandemic that has claimed an estimated 1.61 million lives and infected over 72.3 million people as of December 14, 2020. First detected in China in December 2019, Covid-19 has spread to almost all the countries and territories of the world. The world is facing an unprecedented crises. At its core is a global public health emergency on a scale not seen for a century, requiring a global response with far-reaching consequences for our economic, social and political lives. The priority is to save lives. In India, Covid-19 infected cases are rising exponentially since early August and hitting new highs every day but the fatality rate is very low compared to global average. To save human lives in the absence of any vaccine or antidote, government of India like any other countries adopted extraordinary measures like extensive lockdowns to slowdown the pace of the transmission of the virus. This in turn restricted the freedom of movement, and freedom to enjoy many other human rights. These measures inadvertently affected people’s livelihoods and security, their access to health care, to food, water, sanitation, work, education including their leisure. The Covid-19 crisis has exacerbated the vulnerability of the least protected in society. Effective measures must be taken to mitigate the unintended consequences resulted from Covid-19 restrictions. This volume has made an attempt to analyse the human rights violation of the individuals and what policy measures the government of India must take in order to address this situation. The book has been divided into four parts. Part-I provides a theoretical analysis of human rights, Part-II discusses the poor Indian economy during the Covid-19 pandemic and the vulnerability of migrant workers, Part-III elaborates the deep rooted problems of gender violence in patriarchal societies like India amid Covid-19 on Indian educational system and the adoption of e-learning by several institutions. The edited volume may be an useful guide for the human rights activists and practitioners, academicians, researchers, students, civil society activists and other luminaries.
