Accompanying Distressed Migrant Workers in India

Internal Labor Migration in India

In India, migration has been a survival strategy for millions of rural poor. The findings of the 2011 Census of India point to a decade of rural distress as the major reason for migration. The collapse of millions of livelihoods in agriculture and related occupations in India has accelerated migration due to distress, especially among the Dalits, Tribals and other marginalized sectors. Landless farmers, agricultural laborers and marginal farmers who lost their livelihoods on account of globalized agricultural practices form the bulk of these distressed migrants. According to estimates, internal migrants in India number above 450 million¹ and inter-state migrants above 45 million.² The Economic Survey of India (2016-17)³ highlighted the major increase in inter-state labor migration. This upsurge is directly linked to the survival strategy of millions of rural poor people in India. However, their survival opportunities are not without challenges. Distressed migrant laborers are forced to adapt to alien languages, cultures, ethnic groups, climates, food habits, work cultures, etc. These adverse factors have resulted in their alienation, exclusion and various vulnerabilities despite their being of Indian nationality.

The above context has led the Jesuits in India to act urgently to mitigate the sufferings of distressed migrants and to work towards upholding their rights and entitlements. Thus, a Labor & Migration Unit was created on 1 May 2015 at the Indian Social Institute (ISI), Bangalore. The Unit works in collaboration with the Indian Social Institute (Delhi), the Jesuit Migrant Service (Chennai), the Jeevika Migrant Workers' Movement (Kalady, Kerala), the Jeevika Migrant Outreach Services (Kozhikode), the Bangalore Archdiocesan Commission for Migrants and several other like-minded organizations and institutions.

Labor & Migration Unit, ISI Bangalore, India

Vision: Enhancing the human dignity and rights of distressed internal labor migrants

Mission: Accompanying distressed labor migrants in pursuit of their political, economic and social entitlements

Target groups: Distressed labor migrants, especially Dalits, Tribals and other marginalized groups in unorganized sectors

Objectives:

1. To form and empower labor migrants' groups

2. To facilitate cointegration of migrants and locals

3. To identify the root causes of migration and to address them

4. To improve living and working conditions of labor migrants

5. To facilitate crisis interventions for distressed labor migrants

6. To ensure safe migration

7. To safeguard migrants' constitutional and labor rights

8. To build a national platform for policy interventions

Major activities:

1. Training: Forming groups of migrant workers and enabling them to obtain their rights and entitlements at their destinations

2. Research: Conducting research to promote and increase scientific knowledge on distressed migration in India and to disseminate scholarly and practical information concerning forced migration

3. Consultations: Organizing consultations among government departments, stakeholders and like-minded individuals and groups for the enhancement of the rights and entitlements of distressed migrants

4. Seminars/Conferences: Organizing seminars and conferences for students and civil society to disseminate knowledge about the distress of labor migrants and to seek their support and cooperation

5. Help desk: Providing emergency help to distressed labor migrants

6. Networking among NGOs and like-minded groups

7. Advocacy for formulating policies upholding the rights and dignity of distressed internal labor migrants in India

8. Resource center on distress migration with books, studies, articles and videos

Vulnerabilities of Migrant Workers in India

The Labor & Migration Unit's findings from the field show that distressed labor migrants in India are vulnerable to various rights violations. These can be summed up and analyzed under the following headings:

1. Language barriers

2. Exclusion

3. Xenophobia

4. Health hazards, accidents and death

5. Gender discrimination and violence

6. Exploitation, discrimination and nonpayment of wages

7. Human trafficking and bonded labor

Language Barriers

Language barriers are a major challenge for inter-state migrant workers in India. Language often hampers their communication with the local population, prevents them from understanding their employers' instructions, creates difficulties for travel and access to government schemes and benefits available to them. There are several reported cases where language barriers caused the police and the local administration to suspect migrants as criminals, to detain them for questioning and even to imprison them for crimes they did not commit.

For instance, Dipen Konra, a thirty-year-old Tribal/Indigenous person from a remote village in West Bengal, was traveling in a stifling general compartment of the Shalimar-Trivandrum Express to toil at construction sites in Kerala. At the Aluva railway station, Dipen got down to fetch water and could not get back into the overcrowded general carriage to reach Kollam, his destination. Not knowing what to do and how to ask in Malayalam, the poorly dressed Dipen began to walk. In the late evening, as he could not answer the police in Malayalam, he was taken to the police station. In the early hours, he attempted to escape and inadvertently entered the adjacent airport compound. He was suspected of being a Maoist or a terrorist and beaten up so brutally that his legs and hands were broken, and he became unconscious. In this critical condition, he was sent to a central jail. Through Fr. Martin Puthussery's intervention with the State Human Rights Commission, nine months after the assault, Dipen was released from jail and returned home but with one leg and one hand left dysfunctional.⁴

Exclusion

In India, rights of labor migrants are often denied on political grounds based on the "sons of the soil" theory. In fact, exclusion of migrants takes place through political and administrative processes. This exclusion results in ghettoization of the migrant population. They are excluded from government schemes to varying degrees, including formal residency rights, proof of identity, political representation, adequate housing, financial services, the public distribution system (PDS) and membership in trade unions at their destinations. They are also denied access to public health care, education and other basic amenities such as water and sanitation.

Xenophobia

Inter-state migrant workers in India are easy targets for the police, administration and local people. Profiling of these workers by the police clearly demonstrates their xenophobia, based on suspicion and prejudice. Migrant workers are also targeted by members of the local community for such crimes as petty theft and on grounds of mere suspicion. There are several reported cases where north Indian migrant workers were beaten up, lynched and killed on the basis of suspicion and rumors.

Health Hazards, Accidents and Deaths

Migrant workers are vulnerable to health hazards and infectious diseases due to their deplorable working and living conditions. Their poor living and working conditions, increased exposure to infectious diseases and lack of access to public health care damage their health. They live in hovels alongside heaps of filth and mud. There is no proper arrangement for toilets, drainage or ventilation or provision for clean drinking water or light. Due to dangerous working conditions and a lack of safety measures, migrant workers are highly prone to accidents and death. However, in cases of accidental injury and deaths, migrant workers are often denied rightful compensation.

Gender Discrimination and Violence

According to Sisters For Change (2016),⁵ 80 percent of Bangalore's garment factory workers are women, and these women undergo high levels of sexual harassment and violence at their workplaces, despite the existence of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act of 2013. Most of these women garment workers are young, unmarried and from Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes. A good number of them are migrant workers from northeastern states like Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The 2016 study found that one out of every 14 women garment workers experienced physical violence and 14 percent rape or forced sex. Verbal abuse, humiliation and sexual harassment of women garment workers are part of their daily life. Factory hostels deprive women and girl workers of their rights to privacy and liberty and create a perfect environment for exploitation.

Exploitation, Discrimination and Nonpayment of Wages

The vulnerability of the migrant workforce at worksites is evidenced in the form of low wages, long working hours and lack of safety measures. They are usually in the "3D jobs" — dirty, dangerous and degrading. Very often, migrants are forced to work under inhuman conditions. Their wages are not equal to those paid to local workers and they are often forced to work long hours without appropriate payment for overtime.

Human Trafficking and Bonded Labor

The evidence shows that migrant workers in India also are susceptible to human trafficking and bonded labor. Intermediaries often exploit workers' helplessness by giving advance payments and forcing them and their families into a kind of bondage or trafficking. Those who have been trapped as bonded laborers work 12 to 16 hours a day with very low or no wages. A total of 7,646 people allegedly are being forced to work as bonded laborers in different districts of Karnataka, according to a report of the Bonded Laborers' Review constituted by the Karnataka State government.⁶

Kaibalya Majhi, aged 40, was among the 260 migrant men, women and children who were rescued from forced labor slavery in three brick factories on the outskirts of Bangalore on 29 April 2015. The agrarian crisis compelled this poor Tribal person from the Balangir district of Odisha to borrow a sum of money from a middleman on the promise of working in a brick kiln near Bangalore. After seven months of hard toil as a bonded laborer, through the intervention of a voluntary organization, Kaibalya, along with his wife and two children, was freed to rejoin their family in rural Odisha.

Recommendations for a Better Future for Internal Migrant Workers in India

1. Ensure freedom of association for migrant workers to form trade unions to demand their social, political and economic entitlements.

2. Enforce international labor laws and International Labour Organization (ILO) regulations regarding migrant workers.

3. Provide identity documents to migrants to open bank accounts and enroll in welfare schemes.

4. Ensure access and portability of social security schemes.

5. Protect migrant workers from bonded labor, human trafficking, child labor and wage theft.

6. Protect women migrant workers from gender discrimination, sexual harassment and violence in the workplace.

7. Provide education and health services at worksites and seasonal hostels.

Conclusion

Inter-state labor migrants in India face serious challenges such as language barriers, exclusion from labor rights, xenophobic treatment by local populations, serious health hazards and frequent, even fatal, accidents. Women migrant workers face gender discrimination and violence at their places of work. Internal migrant workers in India are very vulnerable to exploitation, wage theft, human trafficking and bonded labor. Such treatment experienced by distressed migrant workers in India constitutes a serious violation of labor rights and human rights. The migrants' labor is extracted from them but they are not valued or allowed to live and work with dignity. Therefore, this situation requires collective action by international agencies and the ILO to ensure that the human and labor rights of internal migrant workers in India are respected.