MIGRANT WORKERS - THE UNSUNG ARCHITECTS OF OUR PROSPERITY

Migration takes place because of two basic stimuli - prosperity and distress. Children of middle class families of U.P, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and West Bengal usually migrate to states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Delhi and even overseas for better job prospects, this is migration for prosperity and it is good for both places of origin and destination as well as for the migrant. Kerala is the state which has benefited maximally from this model of migration and approximately Rs. 200 crores are remitted every day to the state's economy by 10% of its population which works as migrant workers in gulf countries. 

Migration is a must for growth and development of any nation. Countries that have encouraged migration like the U.S have reaped the benefits of their talent and skills and have become leading economies of the world. In India too states like Maharashtra Gujarat, Karnataka and Delhi outshine others because of the contribution of their migrants. 

The distress based migration however is a different story all together. Draught prone regions of our country are the usual source of these migrants. Around 150 districts of India fall in this unfortunate category from where maximum out-migrations occur. National Census tells us that about 92 lake people migrated from U.P in 2001 and this figure went up to 1.23 crore in 2011 and going by the same trend will reach 1.63 crore by 2021. A 3.3% growth in the state suggests that socioeconomic upliftment of the poor is not taking place at a fast pace and migration from villages of U.P to greener pastures continue. They are forced to move out because of distress and their migration helps them neither in the source nor the destination of their migration as in both places these people remain poor and vulnerable for a very long time.

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.

After the iconic liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1991 waves of transformation swept through our finance and trade but hardly any reform happened in one sector that was crying out for reforms - agriculture. So whereas on one hand 271 million people were lifted out of poverty and a 'new middle class' was created in urban India, almost 276 million, mostly in the villages, were left poor and deprived. Food prices did not rise proportionately as that would be politically inconvenient and land per capita kept on shrinking as generations rolled bye. Millions of rural migrants were forced to move to the cities in search of livelihood. In the cities though they get employment but do so mostly in the un-organized sector like road and building construction, security agencies, food vending and delivery. Migrants form the largest part of India's vast unorganized 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.

The most unfortunate are the 100 million 'circular migrants'. They are the male members of the migrant families who move to cities for a better living but do not earn enough to support a family in the city. So they end up sending remittances to their village homes so that their children can study and their families can just survive and they spend very little on themselves living in suboptimal conditions with barely two square meals a day. During the harvest season they go home only to return to their city slums to earn their livelihood all over again. These are the people - the watchman, the delivery boy, the construction worker, the driver who improve our quality of living in the cities and yet remain poor and faceless and virtually invisible throughout their life!

It has taken a pandemic to bring their plight back into the national spotlight. Every day we are seeing hundreds of them, some with their wife and children, walking back home, perhaps more than 500 Km away, on our parched national highways under the scorching summer sun. They are jobless, money-less, hungry, famished and exhausted and have somehow missed getting enrolled in the JAM trinity. The television anchors give them this fancy name of migrant workers but fail to realise that within them are our best masons, skilled artisans, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, tailors, drivers and cleaners. They make our cities liveable but unfortunately the cities could not do the same to their lives.

Migrant workers are not a faceless magma or a vote bank, they are our equal citizens; their concerns need to be understood and their problems need to be addressed. They have a right to their quota of rationed food and oil but it is available to them only in their domicile. Our welfare schemes should be portable so that these people, who need them most, are not deprived of their share. They should not remain invisible; they need to be seen and their voices need to be heard. If the government fails to reach out to even one, it is one too many.

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.