Rural, seasonal migrant workers are a massive workforce with numbers that touch nearly a 100 million across India. They drift through the economy, often at its very bottom end, remaining largely outside the reach of state services and devoid of opportunities offered by the growing markets. Despite the major contributions migrant workers make to India’s prosperity, they suffer neglect from employers, public and government alike. To help these poor rural migrants, Aajeevika Bureau was established as a charitable trust in 2005 in Udaipur in Rajasthan.
The report talks about how to enable financial inclusion of communities dependent on migration and labour via provision of financial services so that they are able to increase incomes, manage cash flows, and reduce the cost of migration. To establish a sustainable model that will serve as a glass house for financial service providers to engage with migrants.
The report is divided into seven sections. In the background, the report looks at the livelihood scenario of Odisha and the socio-demographic context laying a ground for increasing rates of migration, the secondary statistics on migration, as captured by NSS and rationale behind the report. Section II elaborates on the research methodology pursued for data collection and analysis. Section III, IV, V and VI form the main body of the report elaborating on the findings from the primary survey on rate of migration, trends in labor movement across major corridors and key work sectors employing migrant workers. Section VII briefly mentions the issues faced by migrant workers. Section VIII states the need for future research on the subject to arrive at a comprehensive migration profile for Odisha State.
This study focuses on the migrant workers of rural Rajasthan and their food habits. Migration imposes many constraints on the preparation and consumption of food; which we try to understand and suggest possible interventions which allow the migrants to have better access to wholesome food at a reasonable cost. Food, one of the three basic physical and social needs, is something that is common to all people, yet it can signify differently from person to person, community to community and culture to culture. Food is one of the most essential expressions of culture. It is not just what we consume. It is also how we consume, who prepares what we consume, how it is prepared, what is used in the preparation, how we get hold of it, when we consume, with what we consume among others.
Internal migration for livelihood, a widespread phenomenon across developing economies, has started to receive attention only recently. There are limited examples of practice or policy interventions that help vulnerable rural migrant workers cope with hardships of footloose movement, vagaries of informal labor market, and increasing alienation from urban spaces. Lately, civil society organisations in India have been at the forefront of initiatives bringing visibility to the phenomenon and made innovative strides in designing and delivering solutions. This paper reviews the experiences and impact of the work done by Aajeevika Bureau, a public service organisation in western India, which has initiated an informed discourse on migration by way of demonstrating scalable models.
Started in 2005, the registration and identity service achieved a significant milestone in December 2007. After two years of advocacy efforts the card was recognised as a valid proof of identity by the Ministry of Labour and Employment of Rajasthan. With this authorisation, the card has found greater acceptability as a credible proof of identity among employers, police and local administration. Going beyond a mere proof of introduction, this card has now become the gateway to numerous services such as employer verification, opening of bank accounts and enrolment for social security services. The photo ID is also a critical document preventing migrants from experiencing police harassment that is common place in cities.
Migrant workers earn poorly, have few prospects for advancement and are routinely subject to unfair labour practices. Not surprisingly therefore the labour and employment opportunities available to the migrants are usually short-term and highly prone to fluctuations in the market. Wages tend to remain poor in the case of casual labour in cities or farm labour in rural areas. Working and living conditions are appalling and the incidence of disease and injury is high. Coming from a background of low quality rural schooling that has provided few basic skills, tribal and rural poor migrants are unable to enter those sectors of the labour market that require at least some minimum level of education. Therefore the large employment opportunities in urban services are largely unavailable to rural migrants
This brief status paper has been prepared on the basis of accumulated experience of working for the welfare of Ginning workers since 2006 season in Kadi area of Gujarat and a study of accidents wherein researchers traced the cases of accidents in both the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat. In all 105 cases have been identified by the researchers so far, though all of them have not been approached in person and interviewed. The paper is divided into four parts. Part one provided backgound of the industry. Part II briefly outlines working and living conditions of workers. Part III provides an account of industrial accidents as recorded by the Prayas. Finally Part four discuses the responses of the administration and the employers and recommends appropriate measures.
The study discusses the conditions of employment in relation to the provisions of four of the national laws, namely, Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, Minimum Wages Act, 1948, Interstate Migrant Workers (CS & RE) Act, 1979 and Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act, 1976 and international instruments in ILO Convention 138 on Minimum Age and 182 on the worst forms of child labour. While ILO Conventions have not been ratified by the Government of India, the MNC Monsanto, the main stakeholder in business, promises strict compliance with these conventions in its Human Rights Policy. Employment of children per se in agriculture operations is not illegal according to the Child Labour Act. However most of the provisions of this Act that regulate employment of children are being violated. In fact significant provisions of all the above mentioned Acts that are oriented to welfare of the workers simply remain dead letters.
The contribution of migration in sustaining rural livelihoods in Odisha, cannot be denied. With declining agricultural incomes and inability of rural households to sustain with farming alone, the countryside in Odisha is witnessing an emergence of what one can term “migrarian” livelihoods – where migration and agriculture form the major providers, accounting for more than 55-60 per cent of the annual incomes. NSS data shows that the dependence on domestic remittances has risen most strikingly in Odisha since the 1990s (Tumbe, 2010). In 2007-08, rural Odisha received 14.25 billion dollar in domestic remittances, 6th highest in the country (ibid). The policy prescriptions on livelihoods, on the contrary, do not account for migration as a significant contributor to rural incomes. If anything, lack of a policy stand on internal migration and poor safeguards for labor interests have given way to a perverse migrant labor economy thriving on abundant and unregulated access to cheap rural labour from Odisha, easily recruited, circulated and cast away at will.
Do seasonal migrants in India vote? If not, how do they ensure that they remain politically relevant in the villages they leave behind? In cities, where they spend a large part of their working life, what are the ways in which they get their voices heard? This study looks at the participation of migrant workers in political processes – both through the institutionalized electoral process and through other lesser known avenues of asserting political agency. Done in a multi-location format it covers respondents from 15 locations spread across five states of India – Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
The present report is divided into an appropriate set of sections and sub-sections. Following a routine introduction to the topic under consideration, it goes onto narrate the background – of the bureau's work experience with southern Rajasthan's migrant communities, their very noticeable "outward" attitude to life, their history and reputation as a very mobile mass, their struggles both at home and at the destinations to make ends meet, especially when they move to long distances for long periods etc. – from where the idea of the study was culled out and turned into a research proposition. The research proposition was then discussed at a number of consultations of the bureau's staff in Udaipur. Once the team was convinced that this particular proposition would require some answering to do through systematic research, it was categorised into a set of research questions. These are the queries that the study should eventually get closer to answering. The staff consultations finalised the research methodology too before undertaking the surveys in the source villages and at the destination (Mumbai) as well. The results of the analysis are presented in a long winding section termed analytical findings.
In December 2006, the Aajeevika Bureau initiated a study to examine the financial status and behaviours of migrant households within Gogunda and Kelwara Blocks of Udaipur and Rajsamand Districts of Rajasthan. The aim of the study was to gather data that will aid in the building of financial services products and processes, as well as to bridge the knowledge gaps concerning financial behaviour of the migrant population within these Blocks. Data was collected through a survey of migrant households.
Seasonal distress migration within India is often characterized by erratic incomes and employment, shorter work life and early retirement, cash flow volatilities at source, debt burden and exclusion from formal financial institutions. With the help of detailed case studies from southern Rajasthan, this paper examines how seasonal migrant workers and their families manage many such socially recognized risks; What are some of the informal coping mechanisms that households employ to reduce vulnerabilities induced by migration; And what role do targeted financial services play in protective social security of migrant workers? The economic choices and vulnerabilities of migrant workers and possible interventions to mitigate associated risks are analyzed with respect to three key elements viz. financial planning and management of cash flows; asset allocation and wealth creation; and protection from and diversification of risks.
The starting point of this study has been the growing realization that a very large number of families in the tribal dominated South Rajasthan region have to cope with long term and frequent absence of adult male members. This growing phenomenon is an outcome of the large scale and all-pervasive migration of men for securing a livelihood in locations away from their villages in this region.
Over the years, Rajasthani migrants have come to overwhelmingly occupy specific trade niches in Ahmedabad. Construction is amongst the largest sector and there are Rajasthani migrants across all points of the construction labour chain including the more skilled areas of carpentry, stone laying and polishing and fabrication. Other sectors that Rajasthani workers occupy include hotel, restaurant, canteen and catering work inclusive of running small, wayside eateries; junk and scrap recycling; head-loading and load-cart pulling, vegetable vending and the most personalised of all urban services - domestic work. There are many other areas in which the Rajasthani migrant has come to be a growing workforce, for example in security services and transportation.
Migrant workers in Palamau face unique economic as well as health problems, and it is important for the Labour Department to sustain their employment, and ensure at least a living wage. In this context, the system will need to address certain key ethical issues. There is plenty of published literature on international migration and its ethical aspects. However, there is a scarcity of information on occupational health issues relating to internal migration and government policies for their welfare. In developing countries, internal migration is a survival strategy for many labourers in search of a better livelihood and opportunities. It is inevitable that many of them will leave their hometowns and villages in the coming years, and that the future will see an increase in the number of migrant labourers in developing countries such as India. This study report examines these issues in the context of two blocks of the Palamau district in Jharkhand. It addresses the issues of financial status, socio-economic background, expenditure patterns, government policies and schemes, equity, provision of sanitation and health facilities at work place, allocation of scarce resources, and achieving a balance between benefits and risks for migrants.
The freedom to choose an occupation and to earn a livelihood is a basic human right. Working in a safe and secure environment is also an equally important right. The advent of globalization has brought enormous growth in the unstructured sector, but simultaneously, the loose implementation of labour laws at workplaces results in a high rate of health risks involved in this sector. The current study aims to investigate the health risks faced by migrant labourers who are involved in different occupations and are knowingly or unknowingly exposed to health risks that their occupations may entail.
Circular migration in India is likely to grow and the government, NGOs and other stakeholders urgently needs to take steps to make it a more remunerative and less painful process for the poor. This study explores various dimensions of the expenditure of the migrants at destination and will focus on their expenditure pattern, the constructive usage of earning, saving methods, strategies employed during economic crisis, awareness and accessibility of schemes and policies meant for their economic empowerment.
The present project is situated in Gaisilat block in the district of Bargarh. Gaisilat block is one among the 6 blocks of the Padampur sub division of the district. It may be observed that the district has two paradoxical situations-while one part of the district is well developed, the other part is rain-fed and agriculturally underdeveloped. There is occurrence of drought in every alternate year in the rain fed areas. Due to the frequent drought large chunk of the population migrates every year to nearing district as seasonal migrants for agricultural work and a fraction goes to other state as brick kiln workers in states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chhatisgarh, Uttar Pradesh etc. Based on the migration phenomena, a study was conducted on the particular migration of the youth age group from Gaisilat by Debadutta Club.
With the enforcement of legal statute to work agreements, disputes that affect the earning source and survival can be minimized. A large number of payment related disputes lead to many legal and extra legal complicacies almost regularly every year. Sometimes it is breach of contract on the part of either of the two parties involved. Such disputes and treachery can be avoided by making both the parties bide to a legal agreement which is overseen by a third party.
Grameen Development Services (GDS)had organized an awareness camp for the migrant workers at Shramik Sahatya Kendras (2SK) in order to promote information regarding the services and schemes that are meant for the benefit of the migrant workers and their families. This report summarizes the activities undertaken by the organization and the importance of such camps is also made implicit. Field organizations, from time to time, have to create such spaces of information sharing and knowledge dissemination.
Over the din of India’s fast paced growth story, the saga of rural migration still struggles to be heard. This report is an attempt to add substance to the country’s migration narrative with facts, figures and findings from Rajasthan – India’s largest and possibly the most diverse state. A first of its kind report, it employs a mix of rigorous quantitative data analysis with insightful and compelling narratives on migrant lives; paving way for an informed policy response on seasonal migration.
Internal labor migration has become an important livelihood strategy for many poor groups across India. However, this segment of the population faces exclusion from the various mainstream programs such as education, health, adequate living conditions, minimum wages and freedom from exploitation and harassment. Currently, there are no structural policies or programs targeting the migrant issues in totality. Effective implementation of the available programs, as well convergence of these programs (health, education, insurance and food security), at both inter and intra state levels would be important to improve the status of migrants’ health. This report brings out the health mitigation strategy adopted by Disha Foundation for the migrant workers in Nashik. Nasik is important destination for tribal and non-tribal labour migrants, and thus crucial to intervene and advocate in favour of migrants to increase the outcome of seasonal migration.
Hyderabad has emerged as a major migrant destination for migrants mainly from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. However what is not revealed is the mass migration of labour into the industrial sector of the city. They remain outside the ambit of Census survey due to their absence at the place of origin and similarly unaccountability at the destination as they remain invisible and outside the purview of the state, living secluded lives.This report attempts to reflect on the difficulties of field organization in connecting with the migrants, the inherent difficulties in reaching out to associate with the migrant communities and the difficulties encountered at every step.
Research on seasonal migration of labor in India continues to be limited. Research that balances hard evidence with rich qualitative insights and that brings out workers' vulnerability and informs both policy and action is rarer. The string of studies presented in this compilation by the CMLS (Center for Migration and Labor Solutions) team hopes to provide a wealth of information on seasonal migration from Odisha, one of the largest labor exporters within India. It is an outcome of a year-long effort by a collective of civil society organizations and aims to add to a richer narrative on migration.
The main focus of this project has been to facilitate the transition of inter-state migrants into an urban space through ancillary services. Unforeseen circumstances and inadvertent issues compelled the team to re-think and re-plan the whole agenda and accordingly re-design the modus operandi. Bound by these challenges the target group was shifted from construction and brick kiln workers to factory labour and now the group includes footwear industry labour. The project is being implemented in Kattedan Industrial Area which is one of the prominent industrial hubs of Hyderabad dominated by small scale manufacturing units.
The intrinsic relationship between poverty, marginalization, assetlessness and distress migration has been proved time and again. Lack of livelihood opportunity in the villages has led to large-scale distress migration in which poor and vulnerable people, mainly from the marginalized castes, are exploited endlessly. These people moved out when they were denied alternative livelihood opportunities by the higher castes, when opportunity in agriculture dwindled due to drought. While sheer poverty and debt forces elders to migrate, many times they take along with them school going children, thus discontinuing their education. Like their parents and other family members, the children not only reside in extremely unhygienic conditions, but also are also vulnerable to a large number of threats.
Migration of youth migrants is global phenomena. It is creating multidimensional problems & opportunities for the youths. This report aims to highlight the incidence of youth migration in three districts; Boudh, Nuapada and Bargarh of Odisha with an objective to stress on the concerns,challenges and prospects based the youth migrants' own perspective and experience. Youth migrates to increase their family's financial strength due to lack of employment availability in their state. These youths are less educated and having no job oriented skills. Hence most of them work as daily labourers in factories and other establishments. Another important concern is access to information on safe and informed migration. There are no mechanisms to facilitate safe and informed migration. The youth migrants feel if there is any migration facilitation centre it would have helped them.
Migration is an emerging trend and new phenomenon in the process of development. The migrant population keeps shifting from one place to another without any identity and legal safeguards. There is a need to understand the migration cycle to ensure the safety of the migrant family and reducing the harassment at the hands of the middle men and labour contractors. Looking to the migration panorama Youth Council for Development Alternatives (YCDA) has taken the initiative to organize groups to increase their capacity and bargaining powers.
Migrant workers are compelled and pushed by hardships to take up jobs which are underpaying in nature and exploitative. The issue of earning a livelihood drives marginalized and destitute families to migrate in search of jobs without prior knowledge and any special skill set at their disposal. Thus, the earning power of such unskilled migrants remains low even after years of hard work at the destination. UDYAMA has documented three such case studies, helping the young and desperate migrants to acquire a better earning opportunities.
There are several hidden truths behind the process of migration. Apart from being an economic phenomenon, driven by probability of earning a higher earning in urban centre, migration carries with itself several untold truths which affect both the migrant and his/ her family. The task of organizations is not to provide the resources to enable the migrant earn their livelihood but also engage with society in order to dissolve hatred and ostracization.
Internal migration for livelihood, a widespread phenomenon across developing economies, has started to receive attention only recently. There are limited examples of practice or policy interventions that help vulnerable rural migrant workers cope with hardships of footloose movement, vagaries of informal labor market, and increasing alienation from urban spaces. Lately, civil society organisations in India have been at the forefront of initiatives bringing visibility to the phenomenon and made innovative strides in designing and delivering solutions. This paper reviews the experiences and impact of the work done by Aajeevika Bureau, a public service organisation in western India, which has initiated an informed discourse on migration by way of demonstrating scalable models.
Sohawal and Amaniganj block in Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh are very much deprived in terms employment, agricultural production, marketing and rural development. Social negligence and high prevalence of caste rigidity leads to forced migration of the landless labourers. The major destination of the labourers ends at Delhi, in the Naraina Industrial Area. During the implementation of Migration project, data was collected and analysed. Through the data analysis it has been found that out of 11052 migrants 28.54% migrated to New Delhi in Narayana Loha Mandi to work as daily wage labors and they are purely un-skilled laborers.
Do seasonal migrants in India vote? If not, how do they ensure that they remain politically relevant in the villages they leave behind? In cities, where they spend a large part of their working life, what are the ways in which they get their voices heard? This paper has looked at the participation of migrant workers in political processes – both through the institutionalized electoral process and through other lesser known avenues of asserting political agency. Done in a multi-location format it has covered respondents from 15 locations spread across five states of India – Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
A brief overview into the working of Yugantar in the area of service delivery and the mechanism adopted for the welfare of migrant communities in Hyderabad. The organization functions in the delivery of three social services-financial services, health systems and skill development. The organization has been engaged with welfare activities involving factory workers and those working in commercial establishments like shops and hotels.
Based on the organization’s learning experience of over five years with migrant workers in the construction industry, Sampark initiated the project ‘Empowerment of Migrant Workers for their sustainable Livelihoods’ with the migrant worker communities in Bangalore, Karnataka. The identified target area for the project implementation is the construction sector in Bangalore city which is populated with interstate and intrastate migrants.
In November 2013, the Center for Migration and Labour Solutions (CMLS)of the Aajeevika Bureau offered the first ever certificate course on migration in India, in partnership with Center for Community Organization and Development Practice (CODP), TISS, Mumbai. The course was targeted at field practitioners and managers engaged and interested in labour and migration issues and intended to build fresh perspectives and skills among them. The course drew from a wide pool of faculty from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, SDTT, Aajeevika Bureau, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and more. The nine-day long programme combined conceptual inputs on informal economy and migration in India, with inputs on field research, communication and social marketing, skills that practitioners can employ for better design and delivery of field initiatives.
This report attempts to analyze the initiative undertaken by the organization PRATIKAR to understand the condition of urban slums in Bhubaneswar. The organisation documents the case of Saliasahi slum of Bhubaneswar city, Khordha district of Odisha state, which has been the home for thousands of migrants and the inherent factors that has led to this mass migration. It also describes the work of the organization in providing services, skills and social security to the migrants at the destination place.
Kalahandi Organisation for Agriculture and Rural Marketing Initiative ( KARMI) has been implementing the Migration project in Golamunda and Rampur blocks of Kalahandi district of Odisha. The operational area of KARMI, Kalahandi is the most backward district in western Odisha. The area is infamous for its underdevelopment, poverty, drought and starvation deaths. About 80% of the total population depends upon agriculture as there is no alternative source of employment. This has contributed to large scale migration to neighboring states of Gujarat, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Chatishgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. Similarly, people also migrate to other districts of the state (intra-state migration) like Bargarh, Sambalpur, Balangir and Khurdha districts to work as daily wage labourers in different farms, industries, brick kilns, and as construction workers.
Darbar Sahitya Sansad has been focusing on promoting alternative livelihoods for women and youth in the disaster prone districts like,Khurda, Puri, Balasore and Jagatsingpur districts in coastal Odisha since a decade. DSS has emphasized on women and youth by promoting Self Help Groups and their federations to mobilize the community cooperation, solidarity and build financial powers at grassroots. Thus the issue of migration has so far been dealt in isolation with a single approach of livelihood promotion. Again it has been restricted to the source only, not at destinations. The challenge is how to bring an informative and right based approach to the process and make it a holistic one and improve the socio economic status of the poor Oriya migrant workers and their families.
A survey by NGO Gram-Utthan was carried out in seventeen Gram Panchayats in the Kendrapada district of coastal Odisha in order to asses the profile of migration, its trend and plan project outcomes for direct and indirect beneficiaries of the migration program.
Odisha is one of the most backward states in India having a history of natural disasters, presence of large scale poverty, low level of literacy and prone to distress migration. Drought and floods are common phenomenon in the state. This has led to a formation of a vicious poverty cycle trapping the small and marginal farmers who are dependent on their land holdings for income generation. Acute pressure on the land due to growing population and poor sectoral diversification, most of the people are reeling under acute poverty and mass unemployment. Every year in the absence of adequate alternative source of wage employment and self-employment, the poor and ultra poor category households are pushed out from their hearth and home for a living in far off places during lean agricultural season.
The report provides a description of one the districts of western Odisha, which has high incidence of distress migration. Individuals and families have been migrating to distant locations in search of better livelihood opportunities. Madhyam foundation documents the case of Nayagarh district and the inherent factors that has lead to migration to other states. It also describes the work of the organization in ensuring a safe and secure lives of the migrants at the destination places.
Brick kilns are usually found on the outskirts of most developing towns and cities. The prevalent mode of work requires a resident labour force and most brick kilns employ seasonal migrant labour. Movements of brick kiln workers cross cut nationally. There are some major clusters from where workers migrate to brick kilns all over the country. These are some of the poorest areas of the country. For example, workers from the Bilaspur cluster in Chhattisgarh migrate to Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Odisha. Similarly, workers from the western orissa cluster migrate to the southern states of AP, Karnataka and TN. Since the last three years, Prayas has continued to anchor interventions that benefit workers in brick kilns. The brick kiln industry in india employs millions of inter-state migrants who toil in near bondage conditions with virtually no support from any agency. Focusing on and beginning from Gujarat, Prayas has established contacts with major source and destination areas of brick kiln workers. This report seeks to bring together the database of information generated by Prayas over nearly five years of work with brick kiln workers in Gujarat and Rajasthan. The report will be of use to various stakeholders including public service departments seeking to provide services to brick kiln workers in source and destination areas, education departments to track movement of students unions and activists who want to organize workers and employers who want to hire workers.
Seasonal migration is increasingly emerging as the chief mode of labour engagement across the country and especially in the rapidly growing Western economic cluster of Gujarat Maharashtra. Dakshini Rajasthan Majdoor Union is an organisation of seasonal tribal migrants from South Rajasthan. The Field Study was undertaken by Dakshini Rajasthan Majdoor Union to understand the use of child labour in cottonseed production in north Gujarat in the year 2007. The report has documented extensive use of child labour on Bt cottonseed farms in Gujarat. Overall 32.7 percent of the workforce comprised of children below 14 years. Another 42.3 were adolescents between 15-18 years. Thus three quarters of the total workforce comprised of children and adolescents below 18 years. A high proportion of the workforce 42.7 percent comprised of females.
This document presents a case study of involvement of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) and active people's participation in successful implementation of the migration project by UDAYAMA. Particularly, the process of registration of migrants and provision of Identity cards by the organization has been facilitated by the participation of the Panchayats of Titlagarh and Bangomunda in Bolangir district (western Odisha). This has enabled in creation of resource database of migrant profiles with the organization which can be used in advocacy with local governments at a later stage.
A three-day field visit was organized by Youth Council for Development Alternatives (YCDA) in association with Shramika Sahayata O suchana Kendra to Hyderabad to review the conditions of the migrant workers from Odisha living and working in Hyderabad. This report summarises the finding of the organization regarding the dwelling, working conditions of migrant workers along with dialogue and discussion with government authorities on inclusion of migrant families under the existing development and livelihood schemes of Andhra Pradesh.
Project completion report on the firs pilot phase program for migrant workers in the Nuapada block, Nuapada district of western Odisha. The report details out the organization's activities and programs for migrant workers, the methodology adopted in rescue and rehabilitation of migrant labourers and support mechanisms.
A report on the migrants from Bargarh district of Odisha, it contains the socio-economic profile of the region,which is prone to seasonal migration. Western Odisha, of which this district is a part of, has a long history of seasonal and distress migration to the neighboring states in the south. This report summarizes the migration profile of one such block (Gaisilat) under Bargarh district.
A documentary on the migrant construction workers in Delhi and their families. The video captures in stills the lives of the migrant families at construction sites and how Mobile Creches is involved in intervention program for migrant children.
The presentation showcases the issue which affect the cash flow/income of migrants at their destination work places. It outlines the work of an Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Rajasthan Shram Sarathi Association, promoted by Ajeevika Bureau to provide financial services exclusively to migrant households in Rajasthan.
There are 50,000 brick kilns all over India employing on an average 100 workers i.e., male workers are counted only who are on the muster rolls of the employers. The brick kiln industry, which involves the molding and firing of bricks from clay, is a significant employer of women and children as well. The work is seasonal in nature and attracts casual labour from surrounding districts and neighboring states and account of inter-state and intra-state migration.
Most of the migrants went to various districts of Gujarat, M.P etc. for earning their livelihood. Out of these, most of them went to Gujarat and are indulged in Ginning Sector as a labour. They are facing many problems related to their work place, environment, residential, health, family and personal problems. Therefore, a detailed study of their situation was undertaken on issues such as health, family, working environment, labour rights etc.
This is the case study of Mr. Chhedilal resident of village- Kamalapur ,Block- Kaudihar ,Distt.- Allahabad, who is fireman doing the work of firing in brick kiln. [PEPUS].
NREGA has reduced distress migration. The sample villages reported that migration has decreased considerably due to availability of jobs at the local level. Labourers are able to spend more time with their families as they do not have to migrate in search of work. The guaranteed employment increased income of labour, and was used for fulfilling daily needs like food, clothing etc. and ensure dignity of labour.
This report presents a clear picture of the living and working conditions of construction site workers in Mumbai through a presentation of the statistics collected. This is a preliminary report on the data currently collected, it is intended that as the database is added to, and a clearer more complete picture emerges, the report may be revised to include any new patterns emerging. [Mobile Creches].
Million of unskilled porters, bricklayers and other low-caste laborers have left their native villages to escape extreme rural poverty and find a job in big cities. These migrant workers are spread across the country and travel from one area of work to another along with their families. They live in temporary settlements, sometimes provided by the construction company, for the duration of the construction project and then move to another site. The children living on construction sites often suffer from malnutrition, under nourishment, accidents, and innumerable health problems. According to a Mobile Creches’s study, about 70 per cent of children living on construction sites suffer from malnutrition, compared with the national average of 21 per cent.
