Migrant Labour Crisis in India

You can't repudiate the fact that workers are the backbone of India's development today who have always been there for the betterment of the nation in different aspects of life. But neither the local administrations nor the state or central governments recognize their hearty contributions and let them be in the circumstances they were not supposed to be.

Let's look into facts and figures and examine what happened there as 'Migrant Crisis' and how it ended at the end of the day & finally what kinds of remedies were taken to pacify the situation and what were the constitutional values that helped.

Crisis for Migrant-labors

With the outbreak of Covid19, some migrant workers managed to get themselves back home somehow whereas millions of other migrant workers didn't get any chance to help themselves evacuate from this gloomy circumstance.

To a certain extent, they were holding their horses only because they had a belief that either state or central government will take steps to evacuate them out of this dreadful concurrent subject of Covid'19 which consequently didn't happen.

Finally, the government announced a lockdown that broke all their hope into pieces and augmented their uncertainty at a large scale.  Under this state of hopelessness and helplessness, they hinged their trust getting the opportunity to go home once the lockdown ends. But again they were shattered with the announcement of a second lockdown.

When they saw there was no light at the end of the tunnel, they demanded repatriation services and came in demonstrations and several protests all over the nation due to exacerbated food insecurity and shabby and crumbling shelter services on the ramshackle cottage, often dilapidated temporary housing.

Demonstration across nation

The insensitive behavior of the government led many migrant workers to get on the ground to demonstrate their rights. Take, Tamil Nadu, for instance, where many stranded migrant workers mobilized including pilgrims, tourists, students, and many other civil activists, and designated Revenue and Disaster Management Department to regulate issues related to movement.

At the same time, hundreds of textile workers expostulated depending passage home in Surat city of Gujrat. A day later Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the nationwide lockdown, a strong sense of outrage exposed from the underlying bridge residents nearby Yamuna River of capital, Delhi.

Similar cases have also been seen at, Velachery check post; Mogappair and Pallavarmin regions of Chennai city where laborers marooned demand assistance to go home back.

Apart from these, there are several instances all over India that gave a clear-cut cognizance of how difficult migrant workers were coping with this synchronous subject of Covid'19.

When people observed that the demonstrations are not making any sense to either government or non-governmental organizations, migrants set off their homes with access to pedestrian crossings or several secret vehicle peregrinations.

In fact, such copious cases have been recorded in different parts of India. In Mumbai, for instance, police recovered 61 people transporting daily needs whereas, in the north-eastern state of Assam, 51 migrant workers were caught red-handed. A similar incident also comes to light a few days back where 11 migrants were caught in Gurgaon in Delhi trying to flee in two ambulances.

Accountability for 'Migrant Crisis' 

When you take account of these facts, several questions will arise in your mind such as: Who is responsible for the trouble of migrant workers; is it the state government or central?

Who should shoulder the accountability of migrant Workers; sending state or receiving state?

Why no one is taking care of their shelter in flyover, footpaths, and slum dormitories and livelihood of sufficient food?

Why is no one taking any initiative to mobilize and help them return?

Is the financial crisis truly a hurdle before the government to provide all 40 million migrant laborers relief across the country?

To get these questions resolved, you'll need to look into constitutional values that will clarify either side of the stance.

Constitutional values on 'Migrant Crisis'

To be quite frank, there is neither any specific consideration for migrant workers in the constitution of India that will make sure the safety of workers in due course of an emergency or any natural calamity nor any support of repatriation to their homes and what the responsibility of employers would be.

Under these dismal conditions, people tend to recall the important imposition of The Interstate Migrant Workmen Act, 1979, which gave some important provisions on how the labor departments of each state can monitor and ensure protection in times of affliction and hardship of migrants.

But there have been mere an iota of implementation since last some decades in the protection and safety of most vulnerable migrants in India. Recently, two years back, the central government introduced a bill, Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions, which included 14 existing labor laws into a single legislation.

But the bill lapsed due to the national election and was later reintroduced in the Loksabha on 23 of July 2019 after strong condemnation from the opposition.

After all, the ministry conceded to forward the bill to the Parliamentary Standing Committee for review. The Committee came across that the bill was insufficient in the coverage of issues of interstate migrant workers with an observation by several state governments.

Setbacks of Bill introduced

The main setback of this law is the absence of repatriation services and responsibilities of employers to their workers along with the protection affairs in bad times such as emergencies and calamities.

In addition, there are more than 50 crore workers who don't come under the purview of most trade unions and thus the Committee proposes to incorporate the unorganized workforce including railway porters, construction workers, and security guards under the membership of this trade unions.

In reality, there are only 8 crore workers who work in the organized sectors account of trade unions. Thereby, it is recommended expansion of the government labor department to reach out to the organized sectors and bring such workers under the code purview.

Under these dreadful circumstances, the crisis of lockdown has amplified the dire necessity for the Ministry of Labor and Employment to come up with a separate chapter for interstate migrant workers and incorporate all workers from unorganized sectors into a single platform that could respond to situations of crisis such as Covid'19.

I believe it is not fair to let the migrant workers feel out of sight and mind working in a strange land where neither the receiving state host nor the dispatching one receives; the only thing migrants can do is to stay with loss of income, homelessness, shortage of food and travel facilities.

Thereby, I believe, that somehow Covid'19 is an opportunity or blessing in disguise that helped the government as well as a populace to address the issues of migrant workers in India so that in forthcoming days these problems may not emerge again and if such debacle hits the nation, the nation will be ready to tackle.

Measures to be taken

There are some measures that will help cope with the quandaries like Covid'19.

Firstly, there should be a registration of all new and old migrants living in the cities. Thereby, all local administrations must ask the migrant workers coming from different parts of India to enroll themselves.

As a result, this will help the government allow the workers to seek help in times of crisis such as Covid'19.

Secondly, there should be recognition by the government for the entity and dignity of migrant workers rather than nonentity and negligence. Once they get formal sector works, they would try to give their best possibilities in work.

Finally, there must be a temporary identity for workers so that they may not blame for not speaking the local language or taking away local jobs.

Along with, provision of ration card, as well as Public Distribution System, must be accessed to the workers so that they may find it easier to get at least some subsidized food especially during a crisis like Covid'19.

Last but not least, there must be encouragement in rental shelter services rather than local housings in slums or streets. In addition, the government must make it mandatory for companies who hire the workers to provide them temporary accommodation till they are under work.