Socioeconomic Vulnerabilities of Migrant Labour Households in Delhi
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55763/ippr.2024.05.04.001Abstract
The paper discusses the precarity of employment for vulnerable workers, and the laws and policies meant for protecting the interests of migrants. To provide a more complete picture of the migrants belonging to the marginalized and vulnerable sections, field work was carried out in two slums of Delhi to gauge their socioeconomic conditions, nature of employment, and living conditions. The employment structure in Delhi has also been examined, using secondary data, to gauge the pattern of informal employment. The figures reveal a very sordid picture, as a majority of the workers in Delhi do not have any social security or legal protection of their jobs, and work under terrible conditions. While the social security system has been expanded to cover informal workers, migrant workers are still excluded, as the institutional structure of these schemes is creating problems in being accessible to migrants. All these factors point towards the complete lack of visibility of migrants for decades from the policy framework. There is an urgent need to develop strategies that reduce the vulnerabilities of migrants in the cities and help alleviate their miseries.
Keywords:
Migrants, slumdwellers, Socioeconomic conditions, Vulnerabilities, Informal employmentDownloads
References
Aggarwal, S C (2016), “Structural Change, Jobless Growth and Informalization of Labor: Challenges in Post Globalized India”, 34th IARIW General Conference, Germany.
Bhagat (2017), “Migration, Gender and Right to the City: The Indian Context”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.52 (32).
Das, D. and Bhusan, S. (2017), “Living in Blight in the Globalized Metro: A Study on Housing and Housing Conditions in Slums of Delhi” in “Marginalization in Globalizing Delhi: Issues of Land, Livelihoods and Health”, Springer, pp 431-465.
Jha, P. and Acharya, N. (2016), “Public Provisioning for Social Protection and its Implications for Food Security”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 51, No. 4, pp 98-106.
Kannan, K.P. and G. Raveendran (2009), “Growth sans Employment: A Quarter Century of Jobless Growth in India’s Organized Manufacturing”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.44 (10).
Mitra (2006), “Labour Market Mobility of Low-Income Households”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 41, No. 21, pp 2123-2130.
Nayak, N. and Nehra, S. (2017), “Accessing the Right to Food in Delhi”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 52, No. 23.
Papola, T.S. and Sharma, A., “Labour and Employment in Fast Growing India: Issues of Employment and Inclusiveness” in Uma Kapila (ed.).
S.Irudaya Rajan and Sumeetha M. (Eds.) (2020). Handbook of Internal Migration in India, Sage Publications.
S.Irudaya Rajan and Sumeetha M. (2020), Migrant Odysseys in S.Irudaya Rajan and Sumeetha M. (Eds.) Handbook of Internal Migration in India, Sage Publications.
Shrivastav, P. (2022), “Unveiling the Post-Lockdown Migration Statistics”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.57 (53), pp 22-24.
Srivastava, R. (2020), “Labour Migration, Vulnerability and Development Policy: The Pandemic as Inflexion Point?”, The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Vol. 63, pp 859-883.
Srivastava, R. S., R. Sutradhar, C. R. Abrar, M. S. Reza, J. Adhikari, and G. Gurung. (2014), “Internal Labour Migration to the Construction Sector in South Asia and its Impact on Poverty and Well-being,” presentation at the Internal Migration and Urbanization Conference, KNOMAD, Dhaka.
Srivastava, R., (1998), “Migration and the Labour Market in India”, The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Vol.41 (4).