The impact that Covid-19 pandemic has left upon the people all around the globe is immeasurable. One of the most affected groups amongst all is the migrant labourer who works in the informal sector. The haunting stories and photographs that revealed the helplessness, particularly of the migrants, still loom in the memory. The pandemic has further added to their vulnerability and precarity. Losing their source of income on one hand and savings getting exhausted on the other with little or no assistance from the government, migrants were thrown into a pool of abject uncertainty.  

This paper attempts to assess the socio-economic impact of Covid-19 pandemic upon one such particular migrant group who labours in and around the Himalayan town of Darjeeling. These migrants are locally known as bharia. The other nomenclatures with which these bharias are identified with are namley, coolie, and so on. The bharias who work in Darjeeling town have migrated from the neighbouring Himalayan country of Nepal and have taken up the job of head porterage to earn a livelihood. The locals who work as bharias are fewer in number as compared to the migrants who have come from Nepal. These bharias are a seemingly insignificant, invisible, and imperceptible section of the urban landscape, ever present but remain unnoticed. This paper aims to understand the pattern of their movement across Indo-Nepal border, particularly between Nepal and the Darjeeling town, further focusing on whether the pandemic has initiated any changes in the pattern of their migration. Along with the challenges faced by the migrant bharias, the paper also aims to understand their coping mechanism during the time of the  pandemic and their life thereafter.