March 22, 2022
Mausam Noor’s Special Mention on collecting data on migrant workers & framing policies based on that
Sir, there is a lack of evidence-based policies for the migrants. The nationwide lockdown and the sealing of State borders and international borders caused one of the largest waves of reverse migration of informal migrant workers that the country has ever seen. The migrants were faced with job losses along with non-payment of wages for the work already done by them. The memories of the migrant crisis are etched on everyone’s minds. However, there is no Government data to show for it. The Government has repeatedly told Parliament that they do not have data for the deaths of migrant workers who died as a result of imposition of lockdown, neither does the Centre have data on the number of jobs lost. The need for collecting this data is made even more urgent by the ever-increasing urbanization in the country. India has witnessed a four per cent increase in urbanization in the past decade as
more and more people are shifting from villages to cities in search of employment. Increased urbanization translates to increase in migrant workers. This is the right time to scale the efforts to collect data on migrants. This will enable mainstreaming of the needs of the migrants, such as creation of migrant-friendly infrastructure and will enable inclusion of migrants in each State’s health, education and employment policies.
