ISSUES OF MIGRANT WORKERS – SOCIAL ISSUE
News: Rumors of migrant workers being assaulted in
Tamil Nadu have triggered concern among manufacturers in the state
What's in the news?
● Officials
have rejected the reports as fake news, and political leaders and the
administration have appealed to workers to not pay heed to the rumours.
● Bihar
and Jharkhand have sent officials to Tamil Nadu to take stock of the situation.
Who are migrant workers?
● Migrant
workers are those workers, who migrate from one area to another area within the
state or country in order to get seasonal or temporary or part time work in
different sectors.
● As
per census 2011, the total number of
internal migrants in India is 36 crore or 37% of the country’s population.
● The
Economic Survey pegged the size of
the migrant workforce at roughly 20 per cent or over 10crore in 2016.
Factors affecting Migration:
● Push factors
are those that force a person to migrate out from their place of origin
(out-migration) to another location, such as social or economic pressures or a
location's lack of growth.
● Pull factors
are the elements that draw people to a place (destination), such as employment
opportunities, better living circumstances, the availability of low- or
high-level amenities, etc.
Legal framework for Migrant labourers:
● The Inter-State Migrant
Workmen Act, 1979 looks into the welfare
of the labourers.
● The
Act mandates that the establishment which proposes to employ migrant workers be
required to be registered with destination states.
● Contractors will also
have to obtain a license from the concerned
authority of the home states as well as the host states.
● However,
in practice, this Act has not been fully implemented.
● This
Act has been subsumed into the four
broad labour codes notified by the Centre:
○ The
Code on Wages, 2019
○ The
Industrial Relations Code, 2020
○ The
Code on Social Security, 2020
○ The
Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020.
● These
have not been implemented yet.
Issues:
1. No social security benefits:
● Migrant
workers face issues as they hardly have social security.
● Facilities
like breaks, overtime, sick pay and minimum wage laws may not be followed
because there is no recourse for the worker.
2. Trafficking and bonded labour:
● Migrant
workers are susceptible to human trafficking and become bonded labourers.
3. Discrimination:
● Since
the migrant workers are not from the place of their work, cultural differences present problems for migrant workers even when
they are away from the job site.
● Local
residents discriminate against or resent migrant workers for taking the
available jobs in the area, thus fuelling the ‘sons of the soil’ feeling.
4. Inhospitable condition:
● Workers
may be housed in unsanitary conditions, which are especially dangerous for
children.
● Migrant
workers are also subject to harsh conditions on the job, such as working in
extreme weather for long hours with no breaks.
5. Lack of portability of benefits:
● Migrants
registered to claim access to benefits at one location lose access upon
migration to a different location.
● This
is especially true of access to entitlements under the PDS.
6. Exclusion from Political Rights:
● Migrant
workers are deprived of many opportunities to exercise their political rights
like the right to vote.
7. Sexual abuse and gender violence:
● Women
migrants are the most vulnerable.
● Women
face double victimization, wages are lower than that of men, and they are
sexually abused and harassed.
Government Measures to Protect Migrant Workers:
1. Draft National Migrant Labour policy:
● In
2021, NITI Aayog has prepared a
draft National Migrant Labour policy.
2. Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana:
● After
the lockdown, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana with a financial package of
Rs. 1.7 lakh crore was launched to help poor, needy and unorganized sector
workers of the country.
3. E- shram portal:
● It
is a national database created to register the unorganized workers in the
country, including the migrant workers.
4. One Nation One Ration Card Scheme:
● To
provide the entitlement of getting 50% of the PDS benefits from anywhere across
the country.
5. PM SVANidhi Scheme:
● PM
SVANidhi Scheme was launched to facilitate collateral
free working capital loan upto Rs.10,000/- of one-year tenure, to approximately,
50 lakh street vendors, to resume their businesses.
Way forward:
1. Creating centralized data:
● The
state’s digital efforts are often in
siloes and the need to maximize the use of data across schemes and departments
is a high priority.
2. Engaging the private sector:
● Private
players who have established relationships with these mobile populations can
help the state in planning and
forecasting the demand for benefits.
● An
example of this is the digital payment ecosystem since the introduction of UPI.
3. Separate management bodies for interstate
migration:
● This
will be helpful in improving the data on migration, especially data on seasonal and circular migration.
4. Provision of basic facilities:
● Bringing
in technology and design innovations
to address the nutrition, housing, water and sanitation needs of migrant
workers
5. Strengthening agriculture system:
● Establishing
farmer producer organizations and improving the supply chain management system
and making agriculture a profitable work is necessary.