migrant labour

Mumbai has an estimated 3 million migrant workers. Even if the railways ferry about 2400 people in two trains per day, it will take a couple of months to transport them back home.

Most people we spoke with are cautious about how the situation will develop post May 4th, but all pointed to the shortcomings in the present system for providing relief to the poor.

Sirmauris, as natives from Shillai are known, have been living for years in Shimla working as porters, tourist guides, taxi drivers, private security and waiters. So have the roughly 8000 porters from Kashmir. But none of them have faced such a financial crisis ever before, unable to meet even their basic food needs.

Every year, Punjab employs around 10 lakh migrant labourers to carry out the market operations during Rabi harvest. These labourers generally come in late March and stay on till June to complete the transplantation of paddy.

Caught between the devil and the deep sea, migrant workers in the Kausambi area of NCR, which falls in UP, face a stark choice: stay put and starve or get home somehow, which for most is 700 km away.

Between 2011 and 2017, child workers under the age of 14 increased from a little over 2000 to 32,330 — 41% of them Dalit and 55% Muslim. Now with the recent fire at Anaj Mandi claiming several such young lives, will the Delhi government sit up and act on this mounting problem?

Hospitable, caring and offering opportunities for a decent living — that is how most of them see the city. Thus, despite the tension and reports of attacks on non-Kashmiris in the days following the abrogation of Article 370, they decided to stay put. And they have not regretted it.

Around 20,000 tricycle rickshaw pullers live in Noida, mostly migrants from other states, who came here in pursuit of the ‘urban dream.’ But they find themselves constantly struggling to meet all ends, as they lead sub-par lives, far from their families and roots.

A riot by domestic workers, protests against gender violence or movements against patriarchal limits are all sporadic but increasing signs of resentment against the feudal codes of conduct that still dominate our cities.

A vivid picture of the destitution and rights-deprivation that members of the city’s migrant waste-picking community are doomed to.