lakhs of migrant workers have something to cheer. Keeping in view that 44 per cent of inter-State movements in India related to migration for work and employment, the Working Group of Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) has recommended doing away with domicile/residence provisions to avail benefits in the adopted States.
It has also recommended that migrants should be enabled to avail the benefits of PDS and suggested caste-based census of migrants to provide them social security which they enjoyed in their home States.
The ‘Working Group on Migration,’ set up in 2015, submitted its report to HUPA Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday.
The group has given detailed recommendations on necessary legal and policy framework such as facilitation of access, food security, health benefit, education, and housing including rental housing, skill and financial benefits inclusion to protect the interests of the migrants in the country.
Internal migrants in India are about 400 million as per the 2011 census — over half the global figure of 740 million. Quoting data of Census 2011 and National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), the Working Group has said migrants constitute about 30 per cent of the country’s population. The recent Economic Survey noted that annual migration in the country increased from 3.3 million in 2011 to 9 million in 2016. As per census 2011, women constitute 80 per cent of total internal migrants while about 30 per cent of the migrants are youth aged 15-29 years and another 15 million are children.
Referring to Constitutional Right of Freedom of Movement and residence in any part of the territory of the country, the Working Group has suggested that States should be encouraged to proactively eliminate the requirement of domicile status to prevent any discrimination in work and employment.
A senior officer said on the condition of anonymity that migrant workers have failed to avail benefits if they migrate from one place to other. In other words, migrant workers lose access to social benefits due to change of location across the city “States are also to be asked to include migrant children in the Annual Work Plans under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) to uphold their Right to Education and an integrated legislation approach on basic guarantees on wage and work conditions for all workers,” the report said.
Noting that money remittances of migrants was of the order of `50,000 crore during 2007-08, the Working Group suggested that the vast network of post offices need to be made effective use of by reducing the cost of transfer of money to avoid informal remittances. It also suggested that migrants should be enabled to open bank accounts by asking banks to adhere to RBI guidelines regarding Know Your Customer (KYC) norms and not insist on documents that were not required.
According to report, short term migrants are often forced to live in urban slums, facing constant threats of displacement and eviction.
Many live in footpaths and city parks without provision of basic services and subject to harassment, especially women.
“The intensity of migration is likely to increase in future in response to economic crises, political instability and global environment change,” said an official requesting anonymity.
It has recommended to review of labour law for providing benefits to all unorganised sector workers. The group suggested that the hugely underutilised Construction Workers Welfare Cess Fund should be used to promote rental housing, working Women Hostels etc., for the benefit of migrants. The official said Naidu asked Ministry officials to send report to all concerned ministries and convene a meeting on further course of action.