The pandemic has aggravated the inequality in Indian society. It not only has worsened the situation of child exploitation but also has led to the surge in the number of child laborers.

Many households living in poverty have lost their jobs since the pandemic; as a consequence, the parents were forced to sell their children to factories to relieve the financial concern.

Some human traffickers would go to several remote villages and provide free food for the locals in order to win their trust. After a few months, they would propose bringing the children in the villages to big cities for more job opportunities, and the villagers oftentimes agreed to the plan and thus let the human traffickers take their children away without awareness.

In India, with almost 90 per cent of people working in the informal economy, about 40 million workers in the informal economy are at the risk of falling deeper into poverty during the crisis.

According to World Bank, it is estimated that there will be 115 million people suffering from indigence during Covid-19; even after the pandemic, children in one forth of households facing poverty in India won't be able to go back to school.