NEW DELHI: A majority of migrant workers in the two major migrant destinations Surat and Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat lack access to urban documentation, showed a report by Ajeevika Bureau, an NGO working with migrant communities.
While Ahmedabad has an estimated 1.3 million migrant workers, Surat has the highest ratio of migrants to locals in the country, forming 58 per cent of its total population and 70 per cent of its waged workforce, said the report ‘Unlocking the Urban: Reimagining Migrant Lives in cities post COVID-19.
Amid the COVID-19 lockdown, Surat had seen protests from migrant workers who had demanded that arrangments are made for them to return to their home states.
The COVID-19 pandemic was not the sole reason responsible for the ongoing humanitarian crisis for migrant workers but aggravated the already existing crisis, the report pointed out. The pandemic exposed the underlying systemic exclusion of migrant workers from India’s urban and labour policies which restricted them from accessing the basic urban provisions of food, water, housing, sanitation and heathcare facilities, it said.
Of 285 interviewees in Ahmedabad, The study showed 92 per cent of workers did not have ration cards, 89 per cent did not have voter ID cards, 94 per cent lacked access to electricity bills and 89 per cent were without Building and Construction Workers (BoCW) identity cards.
Among 150 respondents in Surat, 99 per cent workers reported lack of access to ration cards, 74 per cent were without voter ID cards, and 97 per cent without electricity bills.
“This is a reason why workers were left out of government benefits during the lockdown. There is a need for enumeration of workers to ensure the benefits reach them. Urban planning should recognise workers,” said Divya Varma, programme manager -- policy and partnerships, Aajeevika Bureau.
The workers interviewed last year for the study were from the different sectors of powerlooms, construction, small-scale manufacturing units, hotels, restaurants, head loading, and domestic work. They had migrated from states like Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar.
Ninety-eight per cent of migrant workers surveyed had never interacted with any official in a political party office or local administrative bodies which showed they lacked access to urban governance.
They lacked access to sanitation and adequate housing with 83 per cent of the respondents accessing shared toilets with no upper limit on the number of people sharing them. Majority of the workers interviewed also lived at the on-site locations.
The survey also showed that majority of the workers were scheduled tribe, followed by scheduled caste.
Migrant workers do not have any political agency to demand for their rights as they do not have voting rights in the cities and lose out on entitlements, the report observed.
With workers struggling for basic provisions during the lockdown, immediate measures should be taken to integrate them in public provisioning, it said.
The other recommendations include universalisation of PDS, adequate and safe shelter facilities for workers, providing access to healthcare facilities, and gender specific measures like reaching out to women migrant workers.