| Date 18-Dec-2021 to 18-Dec-2021 |
Location Virtual |
Format PRIA@40 |
The CoVID-19 pandemic, which started in January 2020, quickly exposed the vulnerabilities faced by workers across the globe. The use of lockdowns to contain spread of the virus in several countries mostly affected migrant workers, and India was no exception to this.
There are about 100 million internal migrant workers in India; estimates range from 28 percent of the workforce (NSSO, 2007-08) to 37 percent of total population (2011 Census). Most of them are informal sector workers. From April 2020, the country witnessed an exodus of approximately 65 million informal migrant workers from urban locations, returning to their home states, by any means possible, with little-to-no access to food rations and welfare benefits.[1] Several walked thousands of kilometres to reach home. In September 2020, the government announced in parliament that 4611 shramik special trains had been deployed to transport 6.3 million migrant workers to various destinations.
Why did migrant workers rush home? Sudden unemployment, unpaid wages, abandoned by recruitment agents and/or labour contractors, physical and verbal abuse, hunger and starvation due to inaccessibility of rations and welfare services, forced accrual of debt to employers or loan sharks, and unsafe, undignified working and housing conditions made living in cities during lockdown extremely distressful for them.[2] Informal settlements (where migrant workers usually reside) fall short in the provision of basic facilities like housing, water, sanitation, waste disposal, health care, creches, and education. Public health services, insurance schemes and food security for them are often neglected. Additionally, many employers and contractors do not provide appropriate working conditions and minimum wages as per legal provisions, and do not recognise the prior learning of the workers’ knowledge and skill in various trades.[3] Women workers face additional challenges, such as unequal wages, being asked to do lower level of work (despite possessing similar competencies as male workers), sexual harassment and sexual abuse. Experiences of women domestic workers reveals the hardships faced by them during lockdown.[4],[5] Ineffective implementation of the Inter State Migrant Workmen Act of 1979, and lack of responsiveness from State Labour Welfare Boards (constituted under the 1996 Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) Act) are also primary drivers for the lack of protection internal migrant workers contend with.
A consortium of civil society organisations organised various rounds of consultations in 2020 to come up with a Policy brief on Migrant Workers Need Effective Support from Governments[6]. During the pandemic, several CSOs have established Migrants Resource Support Centres (MRSC) at source and destination locations. These MRSCs provide information to the migrants on safe migration, entitlements, skill enhancement, job opportunities, among other support. The centres also provide legal advice in times of crisis or conflict. MRSCs are demonstrating their relevance as facilitation centres and contact points for migrants.
It is important to recognize migrants as critical for productive, sustainable urban and industrial economic growth in India and many other South Asian countries. They bring a variety of skill sets learnt over time on the job and also invest their youthful energy to work, take risks, and aspire to move up the socio-economic ladder. But the public and policy makers, employers, recruiting agents, and state machinery treat them as the helpless poor requiring charity, not as equal citizens who make an important contribution to the functioning of the economic supply chain and in achieving manufacturing, service or development outputs.
Periodically, national and state governments announce various schemes to curb distress migration and engage potential migrants in gainful employment. In August 2021, the national ‘e-Shram’ portal was announced to create a National Database of Unorganized Workers (NDUW). According to government reports, within two months, over 50 million workers (of which around 50 percent are women workers) registered on the portal to get an e-Shram card. In 2020, the Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan with a financial package of Rs. 1.7 lakh crore was announced by the Government of India for 125 days, under which 25 schemes of the government were brought together for 116 districts in six states. Delayed and ineffective implementation of such schemes is largely because of absence of organized voice of migrant workers as workers in the supply chain.
With post-pandemic recovery and reconstruction being planned by governments and businesses, it is important to focus on dignified inclusion of migrant workers as critical contributors to national and global supply chains. This is an opportunity for collaborative, coordinated engagement to create innovative policies and programmes for migrant workers. The Market and the State must break stereotype of perceiving migrants as a vulnerable constituency rather to accept and strengthen migrants as a significant contributor in the economic development of the nation. There is a need for transformative visioning, pathbreaking policies and urgent concrete actions.
As Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) completes 40 years in February 2022, we are organizing a series of PRIA@40 conversations. On the occasion of ‘International Migrants Day’ the Samvad (Conversation) on “Migrants Are Integral to the Economy: Designing Post Pandemic Policies and Programmes” is being organized by PRIA in partnership with Samarthan – Centre for Development Support and International Organization for Migration (IOM), India on December 18, 2021 between 11.00 am and 01.00 pm (IST) to explore the following questions:
References:
[1] Research and Information System for Developing Countries, April 2020.
[2] Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN), 5 June 2020 ; Society for Labour & Development, June 2020; Asia Floor Wage, April 2020.
[3] Kaul, Niharika and Rajesh Tandon, Skilling for whom? Effectiveness of the skill recognition regime for informal workers in India, October 2020, PRIA
[4] Martha Farrell Foundation, 2020, Those who Stayed
[5] PRIA and Martha Farrell Foundation, 2020, My Life as an Informal Migrant Worker during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Participatory Research by Domestic Workers’ Action Network
[6] Policy- brief - Migrant Workers Need Effective Support from Governments; Good politics for source state - Good economics for destination state, 30 June 2020 (CYSD, PRIA, Samarthan, SSK, Unnati)
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