Crisis Within a Crisis: Migrant Workers’ Predicament During COVID-19 Lockdown and the Role of Non-profit Organizations in India Bhagyashree Barhate 1 , Malar Hirudayaraj 2 , Noeline Gunasekara 1 , Ghassan Ibrahim 1 , Amin Alizadeh 1 and Mehrangiz Abadi 1 Abstract This article explores the role of non-profit organisations in mitigating crisis for the urban working poor during the pandemic in India. We focus specifically on the humanitarian crisis around the interstate migrant workers that resulted from the Indian government’s efforts to contain the pandemic by impos- ing a nationwide lockdown. Through in-depth interviews with leaders of non-profit organisations in India, who were actively engaged in relief work during the migrant crisis, we explore the role of poverty and inequality in exacerbating the pandemic’s impact. Our findings indicate that multiple dimensions of inequality combined to aggravate the effects of the lockdown on interstate migrant labourers in India. The government’s initial apathy towards this vulnerable group, delay in addressing the unanticipated consequences of the pandemic response, and its ineffective crisis management efforts resulted in a humanitarian crisis in the country concurrent to the pandemic. In this context, the non-profit sector played a critical supporting role in mitigating the migrant workers’ crisis during the pandemic. Keywords Migrant crisis, India, poverty, inequality, non-profit organisations, COVID-19 Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic caused a worldwide economic recession resulting in millions losing jobs and livelihood. In less than 3 months, the pandemic pushed the world into survival mode, with governments Research Note Indian Journal of Human Development 15(1) 151–164, 2021 © 2021 Institute for Human Development Reprints and permissions: in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india DOI: 10.1177/0973703021997624 journals.sagepub.com/home/jhd 1 Department of Educational Administration and Human Resources, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA. 2 Saunders College of Business, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, USA. Corresponding author: Bhagyashree Barhate, Department of Educational Administration and Human Resources, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA. E-mail: bhagyashreebarhate@tamu.edu