Decent Work for Migrant Workers in India

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Domestic workers who work in middle class homes in Delhi, drivers working for taxi companies in Gurgaon, the construction worker in Kerala and the agricultural labourer in Punjab in all probability have one thing in common – they are migrants. Nearly one-third of India’s population is migrant population. Half of this population has migrated from rural areas to cities in search of work. Lack of alternate livelihoods and skill development in source areas, locations from where migration originates, are the primary causes of migration from rural areas. Workers migrate seasonally, temporarily, or for a longer period, either within a state or across states. More often than not, they are vulnerable, exploited and work in conditions where their rights are not protected.

Stimulating Public Awareness on Migration

Ahead of World Day of Social Justice in February, the United Nations Country Team aims to draw attention to the complex phenomenon of internal migration and highlight the issues and challenges associated with it. The purpose is to stimulate public awareness and facilitate policy debates on enabling safer and meaningful migration for vulnerable workers.

Migration is Crucial to Development…

Labour migration within India is crucial for economic growth and contributes to improving the socio-economic condition of people. Migration can help, for example, to improve income, skill development, and provide greater access to services like healthcare and education.

…But Migration is Risky and Challenging

Despite positive outcomes of migration, the process of migration can be very challenging for both male and female migrant workers, whether it is voluntary or distress (forced) migration.

The challenge is that migrants usually form a class of invisible workers. They work in poor conditions, with no access to government services and schemes, which are usually available to other workers. There are different risks in source and destination areas. Needs of family members, including infants, children, adolescents and elderly who accompany migrant workers or are left behind in source areas also need to be addressed.

Potentially negative costs and risks for migrant workers that need to be mitigated include:

Lack of awareness among migrants about their rights as ‘workers’ and as ‘migrant workers’
Unscrupulous labour agents who coerce workers and do not pay minimum wages as stipulated by law
Many migrants, especially young girls and women, are deceived and trafficked
Workers who engage in seasonal work, such as in brick kilns or agriculture, are often trapped in a situation of debt and bondage
Enforcement of laws and protection of rights of workers during migration and at worksites
Poor and unsafe working and living conditions, lack of occupational health and safety
Possibility of violence at the workplace and sexual harassment of women
Greater threat of nutritional diseases, occupational illnesses, communicable diseases, alcoholism, HIV and AIDS amongst migrant populations
Exclusion or lack of access to public services and social protection for migrants due to regulatory and/or administrative procedures in destination states
Lack of inclusion of migrants in the socio-political dynamics of the city, lack of participation in the political process at the local level and poor integration into social structures such as self-help groups

Gendered Migration

Women constitute an overwhelming majority of migrants. Female migrants are less represented in regular jobs and more likely to be self-employed than non-migrant women. Domestic work has emerged as an important occupation for migrant women and girls. A gender perspective on migration is imperative since women have significantly different migration motivations, patterns, options and obstacles from men. Read more

Making Work Decent for Migrants

Since internal migration in India is very large, it it needs to be given high priority with specific policy interventions. Governments and policy makers can play a vital role in ensuring that migrant workers undertake safe migration, have decent working and living conditions in destination areas, are aware of their rights and have access to social security and welfare schemes. Read more

Suggestions to promote Decent Work for Migrant Workers in India include: developing a policy framework that gives priority to migrants, creates linkages between state and central policies on healthcare, education and social security, and facilitating convergence of state and central resources.

Establishing institutional mechanisms for inter-state coordination
Improving enforcement of labour laws
Adopting a four-pronged approach for better protection of rights of workers that defines the roles and responsibilities of the state, employers, workers/trade unions/civil society organizations and emphasizes the use of social dialogue and collective bargaining for promoting the rights of migrant workers
Ensuring access and portability of social security schemes, for example, access to public distribution network/ subsidized ration in destination areas
Accessing housing, water and sanitation
Providing identity documents to migrants, which enables them to open bank accounts and enrol for welfare schemes
Universal registration of workers on a national platform and developing comprehensive databases
Strengthening and/or setting up district facilitation centres, migrant information centres and gender resource centres
Strengthening the role of panchayats in registering workers
Strengthening the role of vigilance committees to guard against bonded labour and child labour
Registering workers by organizing enrolment camps
Providing education and health services at the worksites or seasonal hostels
Providing skills training, in particular for adolescents and young workers
Establishing a universal helpline for migrant workers

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Resources

Reports

Sustaining Competitive and Responsive Enterprises (SCORE)
India is witnessing a huge movement of migrant labour especially from northern and eastern parts of India to Western and Southern States. While this is triggering economic prosperity for these workers and help host States meet their demand for labor, this phenomenon also brings with it unique challenges. ILO’s ‘Sustaining Competitive and Responsive Enterprises (SCORE)’ initiative is aiding Enterprises adopt methods to absorb migrant workers as part of their productive resource base more compassionately.

Overview of Internal Migration in India
Internal migration is an essential and inevitable component of the economic and social life of India. Given its regional imbalances and labour shortages, safe migration should be encouraged. But absence of coherent policy framework poses many challenges in achieving safe migration. This paper gives an overview of challenges and policy recommendations to promote safe migration.

Internal Migration and Gender

Approximately 70 percent of internal migrants are women yet, there is lack of gender-specific discourse on migration. What are female migrants’ motivations, patterns and obstacles, and how they differ from that of male migrants?

Internal Migration and the Right to Education
Migrant children are among the most educationally marginalized in India. The right to education of migrant children remains compromised, since seasonal and temporary migration results in disruption of regular schooling of children.

Internal Migration and Human Development
Internal migration can make substantial contributions to human development in terms of improved incomes, education and health. However due to lack of policy framework, migrants and their families pay heavy costs and face risks that compromise the potentially positive outcomes of migration.

Internal Migration and Children
Children are the most unrecognized and vulnerable groups among internal migrants. Migrant children often lose access to basic entitlements, miss out on schooling and are subject to health and security risks. This leads to irreversible impact on their physical, emotional and cognitive development.

Internal Migration in India Initiative
This compendium on internal migration and human development in India provides an overview of the features, trends and policy challenges of internal migration, and further explores gendered nature of migration in India.

Fair Migration – Setting an ILO agenda

Today migration stands high on the agenda of global policy priorities and will continue to rise in the future. How well equipped is the multilateral system to meet the challenges posed by migration, and what should be the particular role of ILO within the system?

Rural-urban migrants employed in domestic work: Issues and challenges

Social security systems provide for basic income in cases of unemployment, illness and injury, old age and retirement, invalidity, family responsibilities such as pregnancy and childcare, and loss of the family breadwinner. However, only 20 percent of the world’s population have adequate social security coverage.
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Videos

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Enhancing skills of domestic workers
The Work in Freedom programme promotes skill development, education, safe migration and decent work for domestic workers in India. It highlights issues of trafficking and exploitation of domestic migrant workers, particularly women and girls.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Road to work
Migration through the eyes of women domestic workers, challenges they face and the difference it has made to their lives.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Dignified work for migrant women
Amod K Kanth, General Secretary, Prayas Juvenile Aid Centre (JAC) Society on their ‘Work in Freedom’ project with ILO. The project aims at empowering migrant women workers with skills training and dignified work placement.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Need to ensure safe migration
Amarjeet Kaur, Secretary, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) on the need for a coherent policy framework to achieve safe migration for workers. .[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Nature of inter-state migration in India
Dr. Ravi S Srivastava, Professor of Economics, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University explains the nature of inter-state migration in India and highlights the steps needed to tackle the challenges and ensure a better life for the vulnerable migrants.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Lured by a job, trapped in forced labour
In search of a job to support his family, a man accepts an offer from a recruiter and signs a contract for what looks like a good job with decent wages. But on reaching the destination he realizes, the reality is very different.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Breaking Silence
Breaking Silence captures the experiences of women migrants living in Mullahera village in Gurgaon, Haryana and showcases how community radio is making a difference in their lives.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Experts Speak

Experts Speak showcases the key priorities identified to improve the situation of internal migrants in India.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Migrant domestic workers: Ensuring human rights and making decent work a reality
Millions of domestic workers, mostly female migrants, are vulnerable to human rights violations. This video is a compilations of voices all highlighting the challenges in ensuring human rights and making decent work a reality for migrant domestic workers.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Voices from the Grassroots

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]A smart way to prevent bonded labour
A young couple and their new baby are the first beneficiaries of a national health insurance scheme, which now extends to migrant brick kiln workers at risk of bondage in Andhra Pradesh, India.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Social Security Conventions

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]World Social Protection Report 2014/15: Building economic recovery, inclusive development and social justice

The comprehensive report provides a global overview of the organization of social protection systems for all, analyses recent policy trends and calls to expand social protection for crisis recovery, inclusive development and social justice.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Key Policy Areas

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Social protection for migrant workers
While 105 million migrant workers of the 232 million international migrants worldwide contribute fully to the economies of their host and home countries, migrant workers are still among the most excluded from basic coverage by social protection instruments and schemes.

International Labour Standards on Social security

Social security systems provide for basic income in cases of unemployment, illness and injury, old age and retirement, invalidity, family responsibilities such as pregnancy and childcare, and loss of the family breadwinner. However, only 20 percent of the world’s population have adequate social security coverage.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Discussion Papers

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News Articles

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Assam government not doing its bit to tackle illegal migration: PVM
[Date: 23 February 2015, Source: The Economic Times]

Threat of mass migration for 13 million Indians, Bangladeshis in disappearing Sundarbans
[Date: 19 February 2015, Source: Fox News]

Labour ministry plans central scheme to track movement of migrant workers
[Date: 18 February 2015, Source: The Economic Times]

Kerala’s scheme for migrants
[Date: 17 February 2015, Source: The Hindu BusinessLine]

Protect rights of migrant workers: MP
[Date: 14 February 2015, Source: The Hindu][/vc_column_text][vc_btn title=”More >>” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Faapnademo.com%2Fun%2Findia%2Femployment-and-social-protection-news-articles%2F|||”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]