Caritas India had organized a National Conference on Migration on 25^th May at Indian Social Institute, Bengaluru with the theme “Building lives of migrants today for a sustainable tomorrow: Migration and SDGs”.  The Chief Guest for the event was Dr. Manjunath Gangadhara, who is the additional labour commissioner of Bengaluru. His Grace, Archbishop Dr. Peter Machado graced the occasion. Fr. Dr. Jolly, Assistant Executive Director of Caritas India welcomed all the esteemed guests and participants and Fr. Dr. Paul Moonjely, Executive Director of Caritas India set the context by proposing to be informed, be connected and be compassionate. He also shared the concerns of the Church towards migrants.

“Migrants are a very important part of society. The migrants’ concerns are the human rights issues, labour rights issues and livelihood issues,” said Dr. Manjunath Gangadhara. He added saying there is a policy gap and there is a need to collectively work toward a national policy for migrants. They are engaged in precarious work deprived of just wages, decent work and living conditions. All have to work jointly to ensure rights of migrants as workers. He assured his support to Caritas India and requested to share the recommendations with him.

Referring to Pope Francis message on the Migrants and Refugee Day, Archbishop Peter Machado said that no one should be excluded. The migrants must be welcomed in host states and should have access to social services, he added.

It was a great day for Caritas India as she launched the mobile App for Migrant workers with the name Pravasi Bandhu. The App was launched by His Grace Archbishop Peter Machdo and Dr. Manjunath Gangadhara which was facilitated by Ms. Suparna from Caritas India. The App is available in android and could be accessed from the play store.

The conference was attended by several eminent dignitaries such as representatives from CBCI Msgr Eugene Pereira, Secretary, Labour Commission, Ms. Neha Wadhwan from International Labour Organisation,  Ms. Arpita Amin of Ajeevika Bureau, Dr. Akhil Manuel, National Health Mission, Kerala, Ms. R, Geetha NPS Tamil Nadu, Dr. Francis Adaikalam, Faculty in Social work, Loyola College, Dr. Bhaskar Teegela, Public Affairs Centre (PAC), Bengaluru, Ms. Brinda Adige, social  activist, Mr. Subhash Bhatnagar Executive Director Nirmana and Ms. Swati Jha, Program Director, American Indian Foundation.

The discussion focused on access to health, employment, decent living and working conditions and creating safe pathways for migration from gender perspective. Two migrants shared their experiences working as domestic worker and daily wage worker.

Fr. Paul, Executive Director of Caritas India summed up the conference by sharing the major takeaways from the conference. He said that Caritas India will take the recommendations from the conference and will collaborate with like-minded organizations to build back better the lives of migrants. The recommendations of the conference are to identify gaps and opportunities for the migrant workers while creating an enabling environment for them. He emphasized that it is also necessary to have registration of migrant workers both at the source and destination. There are states who are doing good work to ensure the safety and security of the migrant labours such as cooperatives for migrants, and access to health services and these need to be replicated in other states as pilot projects. A collaborative approach with the central and state government should be done at all levels. We must towards ensuring access to health services, social security and protection to all migrants.

Ms. Leeza, Thematic Lead, Caritas India moderated the conference and ended the conference with this quote, “Migration is inevitable, necessary and highly desirable”. Migrants are an asset to every country where they bring their labour. They need to be given the dignity they deserve as human beings and the respect they deserve as workers. Mr. Deepak from Caritas India proposed the Vote of thanks.