Migrant workers deal with many problems because they move around a lot. They can’t settle in places they work, which makes it hard for the government to help them. This is true both in the regions they come from and where they go to work.
These workers are often individuals who face economic and social hardships. Among them, women and children are particularly vulnerable. They frequently find themselves in unofficial, concealed, and unjust employment. These positions occupy the lowest rung of the job market hierarchy.
Even after many years of migrating for work and income, they face difficulties. They often struggle to achieve economic growth or to improve their family’s situation over generations. Below is a summary of the issues migrant workers face.
Migrants’ Vulnerabilities In Urban Areas
Unsafe Working Conditions
Migrant workers, who dominate the construction sector, face numerous occupational safety hazards. These risks include unstable scaffolding, working at elevated heights without safety equipment, and other unsafe practices.
Precarious Work Settings
Their workplaces, often small-scale manufacturing units, are typically poor. They feature loud, unguarded machinery, insufficient lighting, and inadequate ventilation. Often, these units lack clear exit signs and escape routes.
Legal Loopholes
Many such units may operate without official registration or under lenient laws, thus avoiding the legal obligation to provide acceptable working conditions.
Dual-purpose Workspaces
Additionally, migrant workers often live where they work, surrounded by dangerous chemicals and materials. This exposes them to a variety of occupational safety and health risks, such as fires, electrocution, injuries, respiratory diseases, and fatal falls.
Gender-based Vulnerabilities
Women migrant workers, in particular, face a high risk of violence and harassment.
Limited Access to Social Protection
Migrant workers and their families have minimal access to social protection. Obstacles such as lack of awareness and policy gaps limit their access to public services and social protection frameworks.
Migrant Workers and Health Services
Migrant workers, especially those moving between states, lack access to health entitlements due to their mobility. Their lifestyle is not compatible with the incentives provided to health workers like Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs).
Housing Challenges for Migrant Workers
Many migrant workers live in city slums, prone to sudden rent hikes and poor services. Despite some slums achieving legitimacy, migrant settlements often remain unrecognised.
Living Conditions in Informal Settlements
Migrants frequently choose to live in informal settlements such as open lands, pavements, under bridges or near railway tracks. While these arrangements allow community living, they also risk frequent evictions and lack access to basic amenities.
Risks of Worksite Accommodations
Construction sites and factories often double up as shelters for migrant workers. This leads to increased alienation and exposure to workplace toxicity, compromising their physical safety and well-being.
Wage Protection and Migrant Workers
Migrant workers often miss out on wage protection laws due to inability to prove formal employment, leading to common wage fraud. Their limited financial knowledge and literacy levels limit their access to social security.
Lack of Awareness on Welfare Boards
Migrant workers, mostly employed in the construction sector, are seldom aware of the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (BOCW).
Challenges in Accessing Social Security Benefits
Government schemes aimed at providing social security to migrant workers face implementation challenges due to overwhelmed bank branches, leaving little room for proper guidance or enrollment in these schemes.
Financial Inclusion for Migrant Workers
Financial institutions should consider the unique needs of migrant workers, including their work schedules, to ensure their banking needs are met. Adjustments to the Jan Dhan Bank accounts promoted by the Government of India could help achieve financial inclusion for migrant workers.
Linguistic Barriers and Financial Fraud
The linguistic barrier exacerbates the problems for migrant workers, often leading to them becoming victims of financial scams while trying to access social security.
Exploitation of Migrant Workers
Migrant workers often suffer from exploitative conditions. They may be coerced into living at their employer’s home, leading to potential round-the-clock work demands. They might also be deceived about their work, wages, or conditions during recruitment, or face excessive wage deductions for basic necessities. Some even migrate due to an intergenerational debt bondage. These conditions could potentially constitute human trafficking.
Gender-Based Challenges for Migrant Women
Migrant women encounter unique difficulties, including labour market discrimination, living space vulnerabilities, and limited access to public spaces. They are often less visible than men and are inaccurately labeled as “marriage migrants” in national statistics. Despite this, many of these women work in their destination regions.
Women in Unrecognised Labor Roles
Migrant women often work in sectors where they are not officially recognised as workers. They help carry and lift materials in construction, a position typically reserved for them and often performed alongside male family members. This places them at the very bottom of the labour chain.
Wage Disparities
Migrant women commonly experience wage imbalances and often are not paid equally to their male counterparts.
Domestic Work Challenges
A substantial proportion of migrant women work in households, particularly in cities like Mumbai and Delhi, facing unique issues. Live-in workers often encounter conditions similar to forced or bonded labor, with no privacy, set work hours, or access to trade unions.
Sensitivity to Crises
Migrants are particularly vulnerable to disasters and often migrate as a response to natural calamities like droughts, floods, and earthquakes. Yet, their destination cities, such as Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai, have their own risks, including flood vulnerability.
Disaster Risk Reduction Programs
Migrants are typically overlooked in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) programs. During a disaster, they face increased vulnerabilities due to limited resources and social protection.
Problem of Communication in Disasters
Disaster alerts, often in local languages, are difficult to communicate to migrants. This problem was evident in the relief challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hazardous Jobs Post-Disasters
In post-disaster scenarios, migrants may engage in risky jobs like cleaning drains or removing hazardous debris without proper safety measures.