Push the policy needle forward on migrant support

Context: After the migrant crisis of 2020, migrants became a focus of large scale relief efforts by governments and civil society. The Government ramped up the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) project, announced the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) scheme, set up the e-Shram portal and began to draft a migration policy.

Present status of migrants

Surveys have found that the incomes of migrant households continue to be lower than pre-pandemic levels. Migrants are finding less work and are eating less. A cohesive migrant policy guidance remains elusive. Efforts are fragmented.

This is not sustainable as a third of the nation’s workforce is mobile. Migrants fuel critical sectors such as  manufacturing, construction, hospitality, logistics and commercial agriculture.

What are the reasons behind policy ignorance faced by migrant issue?

First, migration is a highly politicised phenomenon: The “Destination States” experience a tension between economic needs, which require migrant labour, and political needs, which promote nativist policies. The ‘Sending States’ are motivated to serve their ‘own people’ because they vote in their source villages. This causes fragmented policy based on State-specific political calculations.

Second, migrants as a category get overlooked by two larger categories: the unorganized worker and the urban poor. This pushes the timeline for addressing the migrant issue far out. It is no longer an urgent priority.

Third, migration policy absence of reliable data results in failure to capture the actual scale and the frequency of internal migration in India.

Many states have initiated data projects that can track migrants. For example, Maharashtra’s Migration Tracking System (MTS), focusing on women and children. Chhattisgarh’s State Migrant Workers Policy is premised on registering migrant workers at source and tracking them through phone-based outreach systems.

What can be done?

In this scenario of fragmentation, Centre needs to play a proactive role by offering policy guidance and a platform for inter-State coordination. The NITI Aayog’s Draft Policy on Migrant Workers is a positive step forward in articulating policy priorities and indicating suitable institutional frameworks.

Source: This post is created based on the article “Push the policy needle forward on migrant support” published on 5^th April 2022 in The Hindu.