Jharkhand launches Safe and Responsible Migration Initiative

SRMI aims to enable systemic registration of migrant workers for monitoring and analysis at the source as well as the destination districts. To begin with, the Jharkhand government will have two help desks—which will be known as ‘labour consulates’ — in the Union Territory of Ladakh and Kerala.

During the launch of the initiative, Jharkhand’s Chief Secretary said: “Human migration is a very complex topic…Our government is not against migrations…We also encourage it, if it is happening for good. But we saw a different side of this migration during the pandemic…SRMI aims to fill this gap.”

Between March 27, 2020 and October 31, 2021, a total of 9.66 lakh workers have returned to Jharkhand. A migrant control room runs in the state to cater to the problems of the labourers stuck in different states and to bring back the dead bodies of the workers.

Speaking about workers who face similar problems in other parts of the world, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren during the launch said: “How do we work for labourers who go outside the country? The Central government needs to work on this…Mera driver bhi gulf country chala gaya…kal ko kuch hoga to khabar to hum tak aa jayegi, but hum inki madad nahi kar payenge. Isliye is vishay par bhi hum log charcha karein (My driver has gone to the gulf country. Tomorrow, if something happens, I will come to know, but I won’t be able to help him. There needs to be a discussion on this topic too).”

During the panel discussion ‘Inter-State Migration-Learnings from Covid-19 era’, Rajeshwari B, currently MGNREGA commissioner, who was Dumka Deputy Commissioner during both the Covid-19 waves, said that one thing which became clear was that migrant workers were abandoned by their employers. She added that other issues also needed attention.

She spoke about one woman employed in a factory who was physically abused, for which they registered an FIR. In this context, she said: “…Migration is something which is inherent to humans, but exploitation can be very damaging and the question is how can we ensure that these things never happen? Men do have issues, but women are more vulnerable and not all of them come forward to explain their problems. We need some sort of tracking methodology specially for women labourers.”

But despite several attempts to work for the rights of labourers, the Jharkhand government has not been able to implement the deal that it struck with the Border Roads Organisation—under the Ministry of Defence—to get better pay for the labourers, mostly from Dumka, who construct roads and bridges in Ladakh and other areas. Every year, hundreds of labourers work in extremely precarious situations in hilly areas resulting in the deaths of some.

Arindam Banerjee, Co-Founder at Policy and Development Advisory Group (PDAG), which leads the consortium that will implement the SRMI and also advises Hemant Soren government on policy matters, was part of the group which met the BRO officials and authorities of Ladakh UT to move the discussion in October. During the panel discussion, he said: “There’s a necessity to ensure strong interstate cooperation and coordination between destination and source states to enable social protection for migrant workers. SRMI will work towards achieving that in close synergy with the Chief Minister’s Office, Department of Labour and other stakeholders.”

Sharing his experience, another panellist, Mohammad Ali, editor of the Greater Ladakh newspaper, said that they have observed the migrant concerns in the hilly areas very closely. He alleged that at one instance labourers were ‘abandoned by the BRO’ in the Ladakh area during April and May months, which remain very cold. Emphasising the need for SRMI, he added: “At one place, after locals intervened nine labourers were rescued and three died after coming under the snow. BRO did not take the responsibility.”

In the second panel discussion on ‘Role of technology and state in ensuring safe migration practices’, Secretary to the CM, Vinay Chaubey, said that continuous monitoring remains key as people who come from distressed districts such as Simdega, Gumla and Godda don’t have any savings and any shock can to them can cause distress migration.

Ashwini Chhatre, Associate Professor, Indian School of Business (ISB) and Executive Director, Bharti Institute of Public Policy, said that technology can often be misused, but once people are aware and conscious, the same can be used for predictive analytics. “For example, we should be able to predict where and when distress migration will happen. We know erratic rainfall or drought is a major driver of distress migration in rainfed rural hinterland areas, and rainfall usually ends in October and distress migration starts in February. We have four months to predict where our attention should be in terms of people moving out. That data is there, but we don’t do it,” he said.

Jharkhand Labour Commissioner A Mutthukumar; Johnson Topno, the Regional Head for PHIA Foundation; Benoy Peter, Executive Director, Center for Migration and Inclusive Development; Sumeet Mhaskar, Associate Professor of Jindal School of Government and Public Policy; and Nandan Sharalaya from Omidyar Network India were also part of the panel discussions.