Why India’s migrant workers are returning to the cities they fled during the Covid-19 lockdown
India’s migrant labourers make a desperate and risky return to urban areas, Hillary Clinton calls for a redoubling of efforts in the fight against modern slavery, and a fairer contract for migrant workers faces legal opposition in Lebanon.
Despite a migrant exodus unparalleled in India’s modern history, as workers returned to tribal-dominated rural regions during the coronavirus lockdown, a lack of access to paid employment in these areas has forced them to return to the city.
Aajeevika Bureau, a labour rights organization, conducted a telephone survey with 426 migrant workers from the five tribal-dominated districts of southern Rajasthan, in order to understand their anxieties about this return and how the vulnerabilities specific to this group have been exacerbated in the lockdown’s aftermath.
Seasonal migration for work has become an irreversible phenomenon in many parts of India. It is a key livelihood strategy for more than 60% of households in southern Rajasthan, the majority of which are impoverished tribal families. They are pushed to find informal and casual work in urban areas due to a lack of sufficient rural employment, severe indebtedness and landlessness, and the gradual extinction of traditional forest-based livelihoods. This form of migration, driven by desperation, forces workers to take up employment at very low wages with poor or non-existent protection and benefits.
Working conditions for migrant labourers have always been defined by uncertainty because formal contracts and standard employment relationships are not offered, and they have no grounds on which to seek work-based entitlements. During the lockdown, migrant workers also experienced a sense of isolation – contractors and employers abandoned them and city administrations and society at large were apathetic towards their plight. Despite having a constitutional right to work and live across the country, they were not recognized as urban residents during the pandemic because they had not been given the relevant documentation. This disenfranchised them entirely from their rights as workers and citizens.
About 30% of the workers surveyed reported that payments for work done prior to lockdown had not been released to them. And so, without any support from employers or the state, migrant workers in cities were compelled to take out multiple loans in cash or kind in order to feed themselves, often at high interest rates. Almost 48% of workers surveyed had borrowed money, with the amount ranging from Rs 600 to Rs 9,000. This non-payment of wages and rising indebtedness has pushed them into a trap of chronic irreversible poverty which weakens their bargaining power and eventually puts them into constant indebtedness. This affects not only the workers themselves but those who depend upon them – many returning migrants are the sole earners for families with up to eight dependents.
At the end of September, the Indian Parliament passed new codes of labour which could have represented a valuable opportunity for the government to make amends and provide meaningful social security – and dignity – to millions of migrant and informal sector workers. Instead, the labour codes have weakened protection and accountability and do nothing to address the systems and structures that institutionalize the vulnerability of an already marginalized group. In this webinar recording from last week, by the Council of Global Unions, panelists discuss the changes to Indian labour law, and what unions can do to fight back.
Here’s a round-up of other noteworthy news and initiatives:
Join our webinar on Thursday at 2pm ICT to hear from partners in Asia about some of the emerging risks and trends in the era of COVID-19. In particular, we’ll hear how the pandemic has changed and exacerbated human trafficking in Vietnam and entertainment sectors in Nepal, and about child marriage cases as they become more of a concern in Bangladeshi communities.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged anti-trafficking activists around the globe to redouble their efforts to eradicate modern slavery, during the four-day Freedom from Slavery Forum last week. Calling for a ‘Decade of Determination’, she recalled the formative days of the modern anti-slavery movement but said much work remains undone.
Huge congratulations again to our former colleague Archana Kotecha for launching the Remedy Project, her new social enterprise focused on non-judicial remedial solutions – that complement judicial mechanisms – for migrant workers in supply chains across Asia. Read more about the initiative in this feature.
A court in Lebanon has suspended the implementation of a new standard contract for migrant workers that officials said would have paved the way for the abolition of the controversial kafala system. The new contract would have allowed workers to terminate their own contracts without the consent of their employer, as well as guaranteed a weekly rest day, overtime pay, sick pay, annual leave, and the national minimum wage.
Beyond Trafficking and Slavery has published a new e-book After the ‘Migration Crisis’: How Europe Works to Keep Africans in Africa, available for free download. The group describes the book as ‘essential reading at a time when the EU has labelled bankrolling deportation a form of “solidarity” and Frontex is watching from the sky so it doesn't have to help people drowning in the sea’.
In a new TIME feature, counter-trafficking lawyers and victim advocates explain how specific policy changes across a variety of U.S. federal agencies, including the Departments of Homeland Security, State and Justice, have increased barriers to victim protections, complicated investigations into trafficking networks, and warped Americans’ perspectives of what the problem looks like.
Grace Farms Foundation has released Design for Freedom, a report calling for the eradication of modern slavery in the architecture, construction and design industry. By addressing the systematic use of forced labor within the building supply chain, the report aims to spur an ethical movement via actionable steps for change.
STOP (Stop Trafficking of People), Sons & Daughters and the Hong Kong Dignity Institute will be speaking on 19 November about COVID’s Impact on Human Trafficking & The Sex Industry in Hong Kong, and will discuss how to combat the growing misconceptions of the sex industry in the country.
IJM is seeking a Field Project Manager to assist the team in establishing and managing IJM’s new project in Colombia. The position is open to qualified Colombian nationals and will be based in either Cucuta or Bogota, Colombia.
USAID Asia CTIP is currently recruiting for an experienced audio producer to lead development of a new podcast miniseries focusing on stories of human trafficking in the Asia region. The applicant should have demonstrated experience producing podcasts from the concept development stage to editing and mixing sound for final episode release.
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