Priyanga.M
INTRODUCTION:
"The greatest nations are defined by how they treat their weakest inhabitants."
- M. K. Gandhi
On January 26th, 1950, India tasted the true spirit of independence. It was the day when the Indian Constitution came into effect and recognized the rights and powers of the citizens. In one of the constituent assembly debates, Dr.B.R.Ambedkar said, “The responsibility of the legislature is not just to provide fundamental rights but also and rather, more importantly, to safeguard them.” Despite acknowledging all these rights, our government collectively failed in safeguarding and making it available to all the sectors of society. Migrant Workers are one such group. It is a grim reality that these workers are left unnoticed, unprotected, and vulnerable to exploitation throughout their life and deliberately held back from relishing the fruits of independence.
WHO ARE MIGRANT WORKERS?
According to the International Organization for Migration(IOM), a migrant worker is a person who moves away from his or her place of usual residence, whether within a country or across an international border, temporarily or permanently, and for a variety of reasons.[1]
As per the International Labour Organization (ILO) instruments "the term migrant worker means a person who migrates or who has migrated from one country to another with a view to being employed otherwise than on his own account and includes any person regularly admitted as a migrant worker."[2]
In simple words, migrant workers are those who either relocate within their home county or outside it, to pursue work. Emphasis lays on the fact that they relocate to pursue work.
The following are some types of migrants:
● Voluntary migrants
● Involuntary migrants
● International migrants
● Internal migrants
● Seasonal or Circular migrants
MIGRANT WORKERS AND INDIAN ECONOMY:
Before analysing the significant role played by the migrant workers, in the development of our country, it is necessary to know the reason for migration and the population of migrants in India. The tabular column below shows the migrant population collected during 2011 census[3],
As per the United Nations, nearly one-third of India’s population is migrant.[4] Out of which 37% of the population account to internal migrants i.e., approximately 3 out of every 10 Indians are internal migrants. Estimates show that the magnitude of inter-state migration in India was close to 9 million annually between 2011 and 2016.[5] Moving on to the reasons for migration, one of the main reason for giving rise to the factors causing migration of labours is uneven development [6]. The non-availability of employment opportunities and higher wages has led these workers to migrate from underdeveloped regions to economically developed regions. Some of the other reasons as per 2011 census are:
(The above census data has been collected based on the age and sex of the migrants, reason and duration of migration, place of origin, the industry and occupation of the migrant – 2011 census.)
Though, a large number of these migrants are employed in construction sites, quarries, cultivation and also as head loaders and rickshaw pullers, migration, (chiefly internal migration) plays a crucial role in economic growth and also improves the socio-economic conditions of the people.
The total earnings of these workers are around $170 Billion per annum i.e., around 6% of India’s GDP. In the year 2016, India became the top recipient of remittances(financial or in-kind transfers made by the migrant to the communities in origin ) in the world, with over US$ 62.7 billion[7], US$79 billion in the year 2018[8] and US$ 83.1 billion in the year 2019.[9] But in the year 2020, global remittances are projected to decline by 19.7 percent to $445 billion due to the economic crisis induced by COVID-19.[10] A Study on the relationship between poverty, migration and remittances established that both international migration and international remittances have a strong impact on reducing poverty in the developing countries.[11] India continues to be the largest country of origin of international migrants with 17.5 million migrants living abroad.[12] First “on average, a 10 per cent increase in the share of international migrants in a country’s population will lead to a 1.6 per cent decline in the poverty headcount.”[13]
Hence, from the above facts, it is obvious that they are the biggest asset towards GDP growth and advantageous to both the “state of origin” and “state of employment.”
MIGRANT WORKERS – INVISIBLE WORKFORCE UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA:
Incorporating Fundamental rights to our Indian constitution was one of the remarkable decisions made by the members of the constituent assembly. These rights enshrined in Part III and Part IV of our constitution was included to protect the people from oppression and injustice. Out of all the fundamental rights, the rights distinctly applicable to migrant workers are guaranteed under Article 19(1)(d), 19(1)(e) and 19(1)(g) of the constitution.
Article 19(1)(d) - Right to move freely throughout the territory of India
Article 19(1)(e) - Right to reside and settle in any part of India.
Article 19(1)(g) - Right to practice any profession, or to carry on any occupation trade or business.
“However good a Constitution may be, it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it, happen to be a bad lot…”
- Dr.B.R.Ambedkar
With the rights conferred under Article 19, the workers were able to migrate from one place to another in search of a job. However, this eventually deprived them of the right to equality (Article 14) and the right to live a dignified life (Article 21).
In Francis Coralie,[14] the Supreme Court held that “the right to life includes the right to live with human dignity and all that goes with it, namely the bare necessity of life such as adequate nutrition, clothing and shelter over their head.” The right to life under Article 21also encompasses the right to livelihood.[15]Above all these rights, it is the duty of the state to grant its citizens an adequate means of livelihood. Incorporating, Article 38 and Article 39 to our Directive Principles Of State Policy was to secure, protect and eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities. But, for ages, these workers have received lesser quality livelihood because of their language difficulties, socioeconomic background and so on. The main challenge is that these workers are often overlooked by the constitution and become an invisible workforce with no access to basic human needs. Due to unsanitary and unhealthy working conditions, migrant workers are chronic to vulnerable diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, reproductive health problems, cancer and so on. Studies show that migrant workers are six times more likely prone to tuberculosis than other people.
Are these people disentitled from their rights just because they are labelled as ‘Migrant Labours’? Don’t they deserve to be treated better? If nothing is done regarding the health conditions of these migrant workers then the consequences will be grave and without them our Indian economy will meet its dead end.
The migrant workers of Orissa and other such states were exploited by their contractors without proper pay and unfixed working hours. The provisions of various Labour laws did not come to the rescue, because these migrant workers were not among the “organized sectors”. Thus, a committee was set up to recommend measures to eliminate exploitations. The result of which, The Inter-State Migrant Workmen Bill, 1979 was introduced and received the assent of the President on 11th June 1979. This Act was enacted to regulate the employment of inter-state migrant workers and to provide for their conditions of service.
This Act applies to every establishment and contractor employing five or more inter-state migrant workers. It requires every principal employer to register the establishment and obtain a certificate of the registration in the prescribed form. This helps the government to record the number of migrant workers employed. Chapter IV (Section 12) of the said Act imposes various duties and obligations on part of the contractor. It also incorporates the wage rate, holidays, hours of work and other such service conditions of migrant workers.
Despite all these provisions, internal migrants are still susceptible to exploitations. This is because the Act is barely implemented. Laws are passed to redress the grievances of the communities under oppression. But, if these laws are not implemented conscientiously, the objectives for which the Act was introduced would go in vain.
CONCLUSION:
"There's no such thing as the 'voiceless.' There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard."
-Arundhati Roy
Despite surplus contributions, migrant workers remain unvalued. “When it comes to the remittances of the Indian migrant workers, we are happy but when it comes to the remedy of the problems faced by them, we are not at all lending our ears and give a patient hearing to their problems” Indian migrant workers have faced hardships not only during this COVID-19 pandemic but even earlier. This is not the time to sympathize, it is the time to realise their merit and contributions to this nation and accord them the rights they deserve.
END NOTES:
[1]https://www.iom.int/who-is-a-migrant [2]Article 11 of the Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143)–This convention is not ratified by India. https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/fp=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C143 [3] https://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/migration.html [4] https://in.one.un.org/page/decent-work-for-migrant-workers-in-india/ [5]https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/10/india-has-139-million-internal-migrants-we-must-not-forget-them/ [6] Ministry of Labour, Government Of India, Report Of The National Commission On Rural Labour (NCRL),1991 [7]Neha Wadhawan : India Labour Migration Update 2018(ILO). [8]Migration and remittances – Recent Developments and Outlooks, (December 2018), World Bank Group. [9]Migration and Remittances: Recent Developments and Outlook. Migration and Development Brief, No. 31, April 2019. World Bank, Washington, DC. [10]Migration and Development Brief 32: COVID-19 Crisis Through a Migration Lens, April 2020. World Bank, Washington, DC. [11]Report VI: Towards a fair deal for migrant workers in the global economy, International Labour Conference, 92nd Session, Geneva,2004 [12] https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/wmr_2020.pdf [13]R. Adams Jr. and J. Page: The impact of international migration and remittances on poverty, Paper prepared for the DFID/World Bank Conference on Migrant Remittances, London, 9-10 Oct. 2003. [14]AIR 1981 SC 746 at 753: (1981) 1 SCC 608. [15]Boar of trustees of the Port of Bombay v. Dhilip Kumar R. Nandhkarni, AIR 1983 SC 109.
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