Context: According to a UNESCO report, internal migrants contribute to around 10% of India's GDP, however, migrant workers are often disregarded and considered forgotten citizens. The state mechanisms show lack of care and attention towards the plight of migrant workers.
Relevance of the Topic: Mains- Migration: Status, drivers, challenges associated, government initiatives and way forward.
Status of Migration in India
- As per the Census 2011, the total number of internal migrants in India were estimated to be 450 million (37% of the country’s population).
- This had risen by 139 million from 315 million in 2001 in Census 2011 and 220 million in 1991, a doubling over 1991-2011.
- As per NSS 2020-21 Survey: One in three Urban Indians is a ‘migrant’ but mostly intra-state. Among migrants, 55% have moved between villages, mostly women moving after marriage.
- Marriage is a larger driver of migration than jobs for women. Jobs are the biggest reason for migration from men.
- Himachal Pradesh and Telangana have the highest share of job-related migrants in their total urban male population.
- Delhi has the highest share of persons (21.3%) who have come from outside its territory.
Drivers of Migration
- Caste-based discrimination: Disadvantaged caste groups embrace migration as an opportunity to escape unfair practices in their villages, such as caste based discrimination in accessing employment, opting for other livelihood options.
- Natural disasters and climatic conditions contribute to migration in search of livelihoods.
- Uneven growth: The central, eastern and north-eastern parts of India have low levels of urbanisation, forcing workers to migrate to the southern and western regions, as they offer more employment opportunities.
- Social mobility: Migration helps workers to finance expenses for marriage or to enhance their asset base, by means such as improving housing or even buying land.
Caste and Migration
- According to NSS data, Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) are over-represented in short-term migration streams and under-represented in long-term migration streams.
- While a substantial portion of migration for all social categories is because of marriage, a high share of both the SC and non-SC/ST categories report migrating for employment.
- Apart from economic reasons, Lower caste groups also migrate from rural to urban areas to escape from the caste-based discrimination in their source regions.
- SC and ST migrants are largely confined to construction sector and other informal jobs due to poor skills and lack of social networking.
Issues of Migrant Population:
- Official Invisibility: The migrant workforce is almost invisible in official data. This absence results in deprivation of social protection programmes offered by the state.
- No Bargaining Power: Migrant Workforce is a highly diverse group. Hence, they lack any power to bargain collectively and are susceptible to exploitation.
- Political Exclusion: Political parties do not always recognise migrants as a political constituency and respond to their concerns, since they most often don’t exercise their voting rights in destination places.
- Exclusion from welfare schemes: Most of the welfare schemes are linked to the place of origin of the migrants. Lack of access to proper government documents (E.g., local address proof for voter ID) deprives them from accessing most govt schemes and policies.
- Discontinuation of education: Seasonal migrants often take their children along when they migrate for work, which negatively impacts upon the regular and continued schooling of children.
- Violence: Social exclusion and hostility against the migrants owing to rising sense of regionalism.
Government Intervention for Migrant Workers:
● e-SHRAM portal: To create a national database of unorganised workers seeded with Aadhaar. It is also to facilitate delivery of Social Security and welfare Schemes to such workers.
● One Nation One Ration Card: To create a technology system which will be used for enabling migrants to access Ration from any Fair Price Shop in India.
● Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) for Migrant Workers/Urban Poor (under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban ): To cater to the housing needs of eligible beneficiaries.
● Code on Social Security, 2020: The code broadens the definition of an employee to encompass informal workers to extend the existing social security net. Under this central government will establish social security funds for informal workers, gig workers, and platform workers.
● Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM-SVANidhi): To offer affordable working capital loans to street vendors, enabling them to restart their livelihoods adversely affected by the Covid-19 lockdown.
● State Migrant Cell: Established to develop a database of migrant workers in various states, along with comprehensive mapping.
● Election Commission's remote voting plan for migrants: That would allow domestic migrants to vote in national and regional elections for enabling political inclusion of migrant workers so they can demand their entitlements.
Inter-state Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979:
- The Inter-state Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act was enacted by the Government of India in 1979 to safeguard the interests of migrant workers.
- ● The act provides for payment of minimum wages, equal payment at par with local workers for similar work, payment of journey allowance, suitable accommodation, and medical facilities free of charge among others.
- Employers must obtain a licence from the relevant authority before employing a migrant worker. Migrant workers must be registered with the district magistrate before being employed.
- Principal employer: If a contractor does not pay wages and other benefits to migrant workers, the principal employer is responsible.
- Penalties: The penalty for violations of the act is up to one year in prison or a fine of up to Rs. 10,000.
- Issues: The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 has some issues, including:
- Poor Compliance: Many migrant workers are not registered with licensed contractors, which means they do not receive the benefits of the act. Migrant workers were recruited through agents/contractors to work on large construction and other projects from outside the state and this system lends itself to various abuses.
- India’s labour force remains largely informal and unorganised. However, there has been a lack of systematic data on unorganised workers.
Recommendations of NITI Aayog
To overcome the challenges faced by the migrants, NITI Aayog prepared a Draft policy on Migrant workers. Major recommendations of the policy are:
- Rights-based Approach: This approach towards Migrant workers will lead to enhancing the agency and capability of the community.
- Political inclusion of Migrant Workers to enhance accountability of political leadership towards welfare of migrant workers of their respective states.
- Amending Inter State Migrant Workers Act, 1979 as the existing law protects only labourers migrating through a contractor, and left out independent migrants.
- Collecting credible data on Migrants and Creation of a central database to help employers fill the gap between demand and supply and ensure maximum benefit of social welfare schemes.
- Setting up Inter-State Coordination mechanisms and adopting strategies to check distress migration.
Addressing various challenges of Migrants is crucial for seamless migration of labourers across the country and economic unification of the country.