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more than at any time in the past, the Indian economy
is being fuelled by the movement of labour. This movement
is not simply from villages to towns and cities, but
within and across districts, states and even national
borders. It is mostly short-term and often repeated,
although destinations may change. And while it has already
created huge changes in the lives and work patterns
of ordinary Indians, these consequences are yet to be
adequately recognised and addressed by public policy.
The
ways in which this migration has contributed to macroeconomic
stability are numerous. Remittances sent back to India
by Indians working abroad (dominantly but not exclusively
in oil-exporting countries of the Gulf and West Asia)
have generated current account surpluses and contributed
more to the Indian balance of payments since the early
1990s than all forms of capital inflow out together.
Internal migration has played a crucial role in allowing
rural people to cope with the consequences of agrarian
distress and the ravaged rural economy in many parts
of India.
Large construction activities in many Indian cities,
as well as other major public works, depend upon labour
drawn from villages as far apart as Andhra Pradesh and
eastern Bihar. Migrants from across the eastern borders
of India fill many service sector occupations, and even
formal industries rely on migrant workers to fill in
the ''casual labour'' slots in their workforce. Large
farmers in places as distant as Haryana and Maharashtra
rely on seasonally migrant labour for cultivation.
Much of this is not new. But there are new features:
the increasing incidence of women travelling - on their
own or in groups - to find work; the greater willingness
of many to travel long distances for short-term work
or even without the promise of any work; the sheer extent
of mass migrations from certain areas; the growing likelihood
of finding evidence of some migration in almost every
part of India.
Not all of this migration in recent years has been because
of push factors. There is no doubt that the availability
of work in the Middle East and in other countries, as
well as the growing demand for more skilled workers
such as software engineers and teachers in the developed
world, have played a role in increasing cross-border
migration. But a very substantial part, especially of
internal migration, is distress-led, driven by the complete
collapse of rural employment generation, the economic
difficulties of cultivation and also the inadequate
employment opportunities in towns.
This is why most migrant workers in India today are
poor and with few of the resources or social networks
that could smoothen what can be a traumatic and painful
process. Yet public policy does little to alleviate
this - in fact, most public interventions and regulations
work effectively to make the process even more difficult
and traumatic. Given the sheer extent and proliferation
of short-term migration as a basic source of income
in India today, the lack of public recognition of the
many dislocations it can cause for the poor is remarkable.
Consider the fate of a rural household in say, Mahbubnagar
district of Andhra Pradesh, a place where mass migrations
for work were historically common but have now reached
epidemic proportions. A landless labourer who is unable
to find work, either within the village or in neighbouring
villages is forced to search further afield, in nearby
or even distant towns, in other agricultural areas with
different crop seasons.
If he or she is relatively lucky, there will be a link
with a contractor who will arrange for group transport
to the place of work. It may be gang work in a field
for some activities such as harvesting, or work on a
construction site, or some such work which requires
a group of labourers for a certain fixed period. Of
course the journey will be arduous, the work will be
demanding, the living conditions will probably be very
meagre (in fact, the workers are often expected to make
their own makeshift dwellings) without any amenities
or facilities such as food being provided. In all likelihood
the workers will be exploited by the contractor even
in monetary terms, so that they receive very little
income as savings from this entire exercise.
But this situation is still preferable to that in which
the worker has to head out into uncharted territory
on his or her own, or in small groups simply to look
for work to ensure household survival. This more insecure
type of movement is on the increase, the result of sheer
desperation. There are many pitfalls here - the sheer
difficulty of finding paid work in the first place,
the possibility of being duped, the exposure to criminality
of various sorts, and so on. The problem of dealing
with such basics as housing and sanitation has been
found to be particularly acute for such migrants, who
can in extreme situations be reduced to simply living
on the streets or in whatever shelters they can find.
What is more, there are more women undertaking this
type of very insecure movement, with often dire consequences.
Clearly, this kind of migration is fraught with hazards
especially for women, who thereby expose themselves
to the possibility of sexual exploitation and violence,
in addition to the other problems. There are many cases
of women and even young girls being physically violated
as they try to sleep in bus stands and similar places.
Many of these go unreported, as local police often do
not bother too much with even registering alleged incidents
in which the victims are poor people from other areas.
As migrant workers, these workers then do not have access
to any of the public facilities for health care, since
they are not resident in that area. They cannot buy
their food requirements from the ration shops since
they do not have cards valid for that place. If they
have come with small children, they are unable to place
them in local government schools, or even to access
the local anganwadi for their legally recognised requirements.
They are ignored by public schemes and programmes, including
those related to such public health issues as immunisation
drives.
And then there are the other sins of public omission
and commission that directly affect such migrants. There
are no public help centres, no information offices,
no complaint cells where they can go to redress any
grievances, whether these relate to non-payment of wages
or terrible conditions of work or physical exploitation
and violence. Rather, local officialdom in the destination
typically views migrants as vagrants or nuisances, takes
aggressive attitudes towards them and becomes another
source of tribulation for the migrants.
The fate of the family left behind is another concern.
When the adult male in the family goes in search of
work and is away for several weeks or months, the rest
of the family has to survive either on savings from
earlier trips (which are typically inadequate) or on
whatever can be earned by the remaining members. This
can become a major problem when the family consists
of the very old and the very young, with perhaps a pregnant
or nursing mother, who cannot go out to work to ensure
survival. Even dealing with various aspects of quotidian
living that involve small journeys or relate to dealing
with local officials can become difficult. And issues
like the care of the old, the sick and the very young
become especially complicated for such families.
The difficulties intensify when the adult women of the
household become migrants, as is increasingly common.
Not only do such women expose themselves personally
to all kinds of hazards, they typically leave behind
families with young children and older people who are
thereby denied care. The social dislocations caused
by such departures are huge, and can have major adverse
consequences on the families and on community life.
Families of such migrants and the migrants themselves
are well aware of these negative possibilities, but
typically say they have no choice. But these outcomes
are completely ignored by policy makers and local officialdom,
who take no extra consideration of the special difficulties
of such families.
To cap it all, migrants often end up being denied that
most basic political right of Indian democracy, the
right of expression through the ballot box. Being away
from home can lead to exclusion from voters' lists,
or being away when the voting is actually taking place.
This was definitely true for a considerable section
of the electorate in the general elections held last
year, which took place during a lean agricultural season
when many rural people were forced to migrate to seek
work. But it can also happen for state assembly or panchayat
elections. Certainly it would inhibit active participation
in gram sabhas, and generally reduce the political voice
of such people.
Distress
economic migration, of relatively short term nature,
is now a basic feature of social life in India. It contributes
to macroeconomic stability even while imposing tremendous
costs on those forced to undertake it. It is time for
policy makers and the public in general to become much
more sensitive to its manifold implications, and to
take whatever measures are necessary to ensure that
something driven by distress does not create further
trauma.
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