MIGRANT WORKERS: CHALLENGES AND WAY FORWARD

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Picture Courtesy:  THE HINDU

Context

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar's electoral rolls, involving stringent document requirements, risks disenfranchising lakhs of migrant workers, who are absent from their native places.

Who are Migrant Workers?

Migrant workers move, either within their home country or internationally, to seek employment, without the intention of settling permanently in the new location.

According to the 2020-21 Migration report, the overall migration rate in India is 28.9%, with 26.5% from rural areas. Around 10.8% migrate mainly for employment.

Role of Migrant Workers in Nation Building

Economic and social contributions: Provide labor at competitive costs in construction, manufacturing, textiles, and domestic work.  

Remittances and poverty reduction: Money sent by migrants to their family, spent on basic needs such as food, debt repayment, medical treatment, aiding poverty reduction.

• India, the largest recipient of international remittances, received $135.46 Billion in FY25.

Factors driving migration in India

Push Factors make individuals to leave their place of origin

• Economic Distress: Poverty and limited sustainable livelihoods in rural areas.
  • Agriculture, employing 42% of the population, contributes only 16% to the GDP. Declining farm incomes due to erratic monsoons increase economic pressure.
• Health and Education opportunities: The Health Dynamics of India report highlights rural areas face a 79.9% shortfall of specialists in Community Health Centers (CHCs).
• Environmental Issue: Natural disasters like droughts, floods, and cyclones force internal migration.
  • A 2021-22 report indicated 68% of India's cultivable area remains vulnerable to droughts.
• Political Instability: Insurgency and Naxalite activities, create fear and insecurity, forcing families to migrate for safety.  
• Social Discrimination: Marginalized communities migrate due to caste-based discrimination, and a lack of equitable opportunities in their native places.  

Pull factors attract migrants to a new destination

• Economic Opportunities: Urban areas offer better-paying jobs in construction, services, and manufacturing.
  • Government initiatives like "Make in India", Production Linked Incentive (PLI) and infrastructure projects such as PM Gati Shakti increase the demand for labor in urban area.
• Education and Healthcare Services: Better health outcomes and higher quality learning.  
• Infrastructure: Transport networks, housing options, and digital connectivity, enhanced by initiatives like the Smart Cities Mission.  
• Social Opportunities: Cities offer anonymity, allow marginalized communities to seek better opportunities, also promote female labor force participation in service sectors.  
• Global Aspirations: Exposure to global markets and culture through digital media raises aspirations for urban lifestyles.  

Legal Framework for Migrant Welfare

Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 mandates registration of establishments employing 5 or more migrant workers and requires contractors to obtain licenses from both home and host states.

Labor Codes

• Code on Wages, 2019: Statutory right to minimum wage and timely electronic payment for all workers, preventing states from setting wages below a floor wage.
• Industrial Relations Code, 2020: Improve industrial relations.
• Code on Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions (OSH) Code, 2020: Toll-free helpline, registration in receiving states.
• Social Security Code, 2020: Social security fund for unorganized workers. Promotes portability of Public Distribution System (PDS) and other benefits for inter-state migrant workers.

National Career Service portal provides skill, career and entrepreneurship guidance.

Fixed-term employment and gender neutrality: Prohibits discrimination in recruitment and wages, allows women to work night shifts with consent and safety, and provides 26 weeks of maternity leave.  

• Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act) safeguards migrant women workers against sexual harassment in workplace.

Issues and Challenges Faced by Migrant Workers

Lack of Social Security: 90% of workforce operates in the informal sector, without access to formal social security benefits such as Provident Fund, health insurance, or maternity leave.

• According to International Labour Organization’s (ILO) World Social Protection Report (WSPR) report, India’s social protection coverage has doubled from 24.4% in 2021 to 48.8% in 2024, largely due to initiatives like Ayushman Bharat, PMGKAY, and the eShram portal. However, gaps remain for migrant workers.

Exploitation: Migrant workers are paid below the statutory minimum wage, and middlemen deduct commissions, reducing their actual income.

Poor Living Conditions: Migrants reside in overcrowded, substandard accommodations, including slums or temporary shelters, lack basic amenities like sanitation, clean water, and electricity, facing health and safety risks.

• NITI Aayog has highlighted challenges in developing worker accommodations due to restrictive zoning laws, conservative building bye-laws, high operating costs, and issues of financial viability. Efforts like the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) aim to address this, but implementation lags.

Documentation Issues: Struggle to access welfare schemes like the Public Distribution System (PDS) and housing due to a lack of portable documents across states.

• Access to healthcare and education for their families is limited due to documentation, exclusion from local services, and language barriers.

Poor Work Environments: Workers in sectors like construction, mining, and brick kilns face unsafe conditions, including exposure to toxic materials, and a high risk of injuries due to inadequate safety gear and medical facilities.

Gender-Specific Challenges: Female migrant workers face vulnerabilities, including sexual harassment, low wages, and limited access to childcare or reproductive healthcare.

Social Discrimination: Migrants face xenophobia, exclusion, and discrimination in host states due to linguistic, cultural, and regional biases.

• During crises, they face stigmatization, being labeled as "virus carriers", the "sons of the soil" belief marginalizes migrant laborers.

Human Trafficking: Many migrants seeking employment, especially abroad, fall victim to fraud, leading to debt bondage and forced labor.

• The ILO's 2021 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery reveal that 27.6 million people were in forced labor globally.

Steps taken by the government for the welfare of Migrant Workers

eShram Portal: Launched in 2021, create a National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW) and integrate various social security schemes. Over 30.68 crore unorganised workers registered as of March 2025.

eShram – "One-Stop-Solution": Introduced in 2024, integrates various social security and welfare schemes into a single portal, allowing registered workers to access and track benefits.

Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) & Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY): Life insurance and accidental death/disability insurance schemes.

PM SVANidhi Scheme: Launched in 2020, provides collateral-free working capital loans to street vendors.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY): Provide affordable housing. The Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) component offers housing at affordable rents near workplaces.

Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY): Provides health coverage of Rs. 5 lakh for secondary and tertiary care to over 12 crore eligible families, including migrant workers. Its portability feature allows treatment at any empaneled hospital nationwide.

Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan (PM-SYM): Offers a minimum assured pension of ₹3,000 per month to unorganized workers, including migrants, upon reaching 60 years of age, for those earning less than ₹15,000 monthly.

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY): Extended for five years from January 1, 2024, provides free food grains and direct cash transfers to families below the poverty line, including migrant workers.

One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme: Ensures food security through the portability of ration cards across India, allowing migrant workers to access subsidized food from any Fair Price Shop.

State-level Initiatives:

• Uttar Pradesh create skill-mapping of returning migrants and links them to employment or entrepreneurship through portals like Uttar Pradesh's Sewa Mitra application.
• Jharkhand facilitates safe migration by developing worker databases.
• Kerala offers the 'Awaaz' healthcare scheme and accident/life insurance. 
• Employment portals such as Maharashtra's 'Mahajobs' and Karnataka's 'Kaushalkar.com' link job seekers, including migrants, with industry demand.

What steps need to be taken for the welfare of Migrant Workers?

Formalization: Promote formal employment contracts. Expand programs like the Skill India Mission and PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) to offer certified training.

• Leverage private sector participation and CSR initiatives to fund social infrastructure projects.
• Ensure easy access to banking services, strengthen Jan Dhan Yojana and Aadhaar-enabled Direct Benefit Transfers to reduce dependency on informal moneylenders and improve financial stability.

Unified Policies: Encourage inter-state Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) and a national framework for interstate migrant workers to harmonize labor policies and ensure equitable treatment.

• Amend the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act to ensure better coordination between source and destination states for effective grievance redressal.

Portable Systems: Develop a nationwide platform ensure portability for benefits like Employee Provident Fund (EPF), and link ONORC with health insurance schemes (e.g., PMJAY).

• All social security programs must include an inbuilt portability clause to benefit the informal workforce.

Affordable Housing: Design affordable rental housing, integrated with urban development policies, to create livelihood clusters.

• Mandate employers, especially on large projects, to provide temporary housing with essential amenities.

Gender-Sensitive Policies: Targeted policies addressing the unique needs of female migrants, focus on safety measures, wage parity, and access to childcare facilities.

• Integrate Anganwadi services with urban housing policies to provide crucial childcare for working mothers.
• Portable education systems, including open schooling and mid-day meal portability, to ensure uninterrupted education.

Accountability: Establish clear, time-bound grievance helplines where migrant laborers can register complaints in their native languages.

Source: THE HINDU