Chennai: The Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission has recommended the state government to form policies for preventing harassment and discrimination of migrant workers, apart from devising suitable policies for accessing all the social welfare schemes in Chennai region.
According to the report, titled ‘Life and Times of Migrant Workers in Chennai Region’, a copy of which is with ThePrint, the State Planning Commission has surveyed migrant workers in and around the Chennai region. It found that about 53 percent of them work more than eight hours a day and nearly 15 percent reported 12 hours of work.
“In the construction sector, 62 percent of them work on an average of about 10 hours a day while the corresponding percentages for the manufacturing and service sectors are 25 percent and 12 percent, respectively,” it said, adding that the migrant workers in the construction sector are made to work longer hours than those employed in other sectors.
Among the migrant workers belonging to different castes, those from Scheduled Tribes work for a longer number of hours per day than the workers belonging to other caste groups.
The report, submitted to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on 13 March, revealed that on an average, migrant workers in Chennai region earn around Rs 15,902, slightly higher than the income required for a family of four to be above the poverty line, which is Rs 14,556.
“Around 76 percent of migrant workers are either below the poverty line or earn just enough to remain slightly above the poverty line,” the report read.
The highest average income is earned by a migrant worker in the construction sector (Rs 18,696 per month), followed by the service (Rs 17,025 per month) and the manufacturing sectors (Rs 14,534 per month). On an average, three out of four migrant workers earn an average monthly income below Rs 18,000 in the Chennai region, in 2024.
State Planning Commission executive vice-chairman J. Jeyaranjan told ThePrint that there were challenges on the ground in extending the social welfare schemes to the migrant workers.
“Although the PDS (Public Distribution System) is universal, there are challenges on the ground for the migrant workers to get rice and other essentials in ration shops. Similarly, they do not have access to the government hospitals, although already an instruction has been given to treat them without any question. Once these challenges are mitigated, migrant workers will also lead a life with dignity and hope,” Jeyaranjan told ThePrint.
In Tamil Nadu, labour unions have been demanding the implementation of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 for the welfare of migrant workers.
“Equal pay for equal work is what we have been battling for years now. If migrant workers are allowed to slog for less pay, it will turn against us sooner or later,” said R. Singaravelu, a member of the Tamil Nadu Manual Workers Welfare Board and leader of a federation of construction workers.
The report comes two years after there was a hue and cry over ‘attacks’ on Hindi-speaking migrant workers in Tamil Nadu, which is one of the most industrialised states in India attracting workforce from across the country.
In March 2023, several people widely shared videos of migrant workers allegedly being attacked as well as showing them at railway stations to leave for their homes. Back then, Stalin had reached out to his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar to clarify that reports of migrants being targeted in the state were just rumours.
According to a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, the central government had estimated that there were about 43.22 lakh migrant workers in Tamil Nadu by July 2020.
Eight lakh people, the state government has said, registered until 2024. Officials say that as the registration of migrant workers is voluntary, the numbers are much less when compared to their actual number in Tamil Nadu.
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‘Majority employed without any written contract’
To study the lives of the workforce in and around the Chennai region, the Commission surveyed 800-plus migrant workers from different states, a majority of them were in Tiruvalluvur district, an industrial hub near Chennai, and about 26 percent from Chennai.
The report found that the highest chunk of migrant workers are from Bihar, which is 35.3 percent followed by Odisha 19.9 percent and then the Northeast with about 15.9 percent.
About 84 percent of them, according to the study, were employed without any kind of written contract.
“This practice is especially true of the manufacturing and service sectors while in the construction sector, the prevalent practice is to have a group contact through a leader,” the report mentioned.
It added that most of the migrant workers were unskilled at the time of seeking a job and were upskilled during the course of their work. “They begin as helpers to skilled workers and then learn the skill. About 71 percent report learning the skill on the job.”
The report said the plight of these migrant workers was not a vastly different situation from others in the informal sector. “Thus, the policies required to improve the living and working conditions of migrant workers in the Chennai region would have to be part of the policies drawn to address the problems faced by workers in the informal sector and the urban poor, in general.”
Referring to the findings that highlighted problems such as the difficulties in accessing the PDS, Singaravelu said that most of the migrant workers leave their ration cards back at their homes for their families to purchase ration. “However, without ration cards, they are not even able to avail the benefits under the workers welfare board here,” he said.
According to the report, more than half the migrants bring their families along when they migrate to the southern state in search of livelihood.
“Single migrants are predominant among the Scheduled Tribes while familial migration is more common among migrants belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes. Across the major sectors where migrants are employed, it is the construction sector that has the highest percentage of single migrants,” it added.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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