FOR SOMEONE who has been working on circular migration in India for decades, the news of the new draft National Migrant Policy being framed by NITI Aayog is an extremely welcome development. The need to do this has evidently been precipitated by the enormous suffering endured by the country’s circular migrants (those who migrate short term primarily to earn and remit money back home) during the covid-19 lockdown in 2020. As a draft copy of the policy, prepared in January this year, acknowledges, circular migrants are the backbone of our economy and contribute at least 10 per cent of India’s GDP. Yet, tens of millions are employed in precarious jobs in the informal sector without contracts or documents to prove their identity, and claim state support in the event of a crisis. This reality was driven home through horrific scenes of migrants left without earnings or any source of social protection as the employers and contractors that they depended on for their survival, were hurt by the lockdown themselves and unable to fulfil promises of patronage. The draft policy is clear in highlighting the vulnerability of migrants to such crises and describes the experience of migrants during the lockdown as a “humanitarian and economic crisis”.
Clearly there is strong political will and intent to never let this kind of tragedy happen again. The draft contains several radical recommendations that build on those made in 2017 by the working group on migration appointed by the then Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, as well as recent research and policy analyses by leading thinkers in the field. It seeks to take a rights-based approach and discusses the importance of collective action and unions to help migrants bargain for better conditions and remuneration.
INVOLVEMENT OF LINE AGENCIES
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