Charan Mahananda, from Sambalpur District in Western Odisha, works as a Junior Research Associate at the Centre for Commercial Determinants of Health (C-CDoH), Institute of Public Health, Bangalore, focusing on psychoactive substances and public health. He is a former Urban Fellow at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bengaluru.
India’s cities thrive on invisible labour. This article shows how rural policy failures, weak labour protections, and urban informality combine to trap migrant workers in cycles of exhaustion, illness, and precarity. By design, not by accident.
An exploration of how caste-based discrimination in educational and professional spaces erodes mental health, turning belonging into a lifelong battle. It argues that true wellness demands confronting caste as a systemic cause of psychological harm.
