- And India’s hollow claims of a progressive, liberal society
Terrorising migrant labourers from other states has become a common phenomenon in India. In late 60s, South Indian migrants were attacked by Bal Thackery in Mumbai. In 1979, thousands of Bengali migrants were attacked and forced to flee from Meghalaya by youth organisations. During the 80s, over 1.5 million Nepali and Bengali speaking migrants fled from Assam in anti-foreigners’ campaign.
In early 80s over 90 thousand Bengalis fled from Tripura. In December 1991, eighteen Tamils were killed, and thousands were forced to flee after Cauvery Water tribunal riots. In 2000, the extremist Hindu group Shiv Sena attacked Hindi speaking people from UP and Bihar in Mumbai, Maharashtra State, accusing them of stealing their jobs. Over fifty thousand Reang labourers, one of the 21 scheduled tribes of the Indian state of Tripura, fled from Mizoram between 2003 and 2009 and over five thousand Northeast labourers fled from Bengaluru in Aug 2012.
The problem is a serious one but the president of Sanand Industries Association (Gujarat) maintains that “Over 12,000 labourers from Bihar, UP and MP employed in North Gujarat, have left for their home states”, currently. With the situation worsening, the chief ministers of UP and Bihar called up their Gujarat counterpart Vijay Rupani to express their concern.
Ironically, India claims to be a vibrant economy and liberal polity, however, creeping ethnic problem of “Migrant Labourers” is a shameful reminder that such claims are hollow. Narendra Modi, who took oath as prime minister in 2014 amidst electoral promises of making “India a Shining State”, has failed miserably since the people migrant labourers from other states fear that the limited economic opportunities will bring down the wrath of violent mobs and turn the resident communities against them, who will resort to violence, driving them away or even killing them.
In this grim milieu, saner elements in India like the Aajeevika Bureau are examining the extent of the rot that has set in, with a view of making recommendations to stem it. They opine that seasonal migration for work is a pervasive reality in rural India. An overwhelming 120 million people or more are estimated to migrate from rural areas to urban labour markets, industries and farms. Migration has become essential for people from regions that face frequent shortages of rainfall or suffer floods, or where population densities are high in relation to land. Areas facing unresolved social or political conflicts also become prone to high out migration. Poverty, lack of local options and the availability of work elsewhere become the trigger and the pull for rural migration respectively.
Some regions like UP and Bihar have been known for rural migration for decades — however newer corridors like Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and recently even North East have become major sending regions of manual labour. Among the biggest employers of migrant workers is the construction sector (40 million), domestic work (20 million), textile (11 million), brick kiln work (10 million), transportation, mines and quarries and agriculture. Managed in many cases by private labour contractors and fueled by social networks there are well formed patterns in movement of labour across hundreds of kilometers within the country.
There is a concern over unplanned settlements of these ISM labourers, leading to various issues like poor housing conditions, over burdening of infrastructure, degradation of land, pollution of river streams, etc
Migrants form the largest part of India’s vast unorganised work sector. Their entry into the labour markets is marked with several endemic disadvantages. Devoid of critical skills, information and bargaining power, migrant workers often get caught in exploitative labour arrangements that forces them to work in low-end, low-value, hazardous work. Lack of identity and legal protection accentuates this problem. The hardships of migrant workers are especially magnified when state boundaries are crossed and the distance between the “source” and “destination” increases. Migrants can also become easy victims of identity politics and parochialism.
Despite the vast numbers of migrant workers, the policies of the Indian state have largely failed in providing any form of legal or social protection to this vulnerable group. In a continuous state of drift, migrants are left out of the scope of state provisions at both ends – the “source” and the “destination”. The urban labour markets treat them with opportunistic indifference extracting hard labour but denying basic entitlements such as decent shelter, fair priced food, subsidised healthcare facilities or training and education. They are also usually out of bounds of government and civil society initiatives, both because of being “invisible” and for their inability to carry entitlements along as they move.
There is one piece of legislation in India known as Inter-State Migrant Workers Act, 1979 which aims to safeguard migrants. However, it is obsolete and is hardly enforced anywhere. A serious constraint in framing an effective policy is the lack of credible data on incidence of seasonal migration. Census and NSS that have a significant impact on policy making are unable to capture seasonal and circular migration. Migrants may also be missed out in BPL (below poverty line) surveys. Above all, they are unable to participate in the formal electoral system and are denied a fundamental citizenship right — their right to vote.
Aajeevika Bureau finds that economic growth in India today hinges on mobility of labour. The contribution of migrant workers to national income is enormous but there is little done in return for their security and well-being. There is an imminent need for solutions to transform migration into a more dignified and rewarding opportunity. Without this, making growth inclusive or the very least, sustainable, will remain a very distant dream.
Shruthi Ashok and Professor Neena Thomas of the Department of Architecture College of Engineering Trivandrum Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India, in “A study on issues of inter – state migrant (ISM) labourers in India” conclude that many people migrate from rural areas to urban areas in India and they are considered as floating population. Through case studies and primary survey, it is realised that these labourers face social and economic discrimination. They are forced to live in polluted environment and poor housing conditions during their stay at destination place. Ashok and Professor Thomas opine that there is also another side to the reality that some migrant labourers also carry out antisocial activities during their stay at destination place and they also lack identity of who they are, where they are from and what they exactly do. But, no state can restrict any Indian Citizen from entering a state/ region/ place in India, because “the right to freedom of movement” laid down in the Indian constitution allows any Indian to move freely anywhere within the Indian territory. Similarly, the migrants have rights to enjoy all the human and fundamental rights laid down in the Indian constitution. Government has put forth enough acts, schemes and programmes for them but these initiatives hardly or never reach the ISM labourers, mainly due to loop holes in medium of communication and administration set up.
There is a concern over unplanned settlements of these ISM labourers, leading to various issues like poor housing conditions, over burdening of infrastructure, degradation of land, pollution of river streams, etc. There lacks inclusion of the migrants into society, hence certain inclusive policies and schemes could be put forward such that it would help in bringing ISM labourers into the mainstream and also create a management system that can solve the issues regarding their identity. It could create a database for implementing other schemes for them related to their socio-economic, environmental and housing issues, without hindering the activities of local community.
