India is the country with the highest economic growth rate, albeit at a cost of growing unemployment, underemployment and job insecurity. With the arrival of the SARS-Cov2 coronavirus, the country faces not just a health crisis but also a social one, highlighted by the insecurity of casual jobs in cities. Bruno Dorin, an economist with CIRAD, analyses the situation in New Delhi. This article is the first of a series on the impact of Covid-19 on food security in tropical countries.