The life of migrant workers in India continues to be affected due to mobility limitations brought on by the Covid pandemic, as now their survival depends on low-paying occupations in the unorganised sector. Caught in Hobson’s choice, the migrant workers accept any job offered regardless of compensation or working conditions. This has also increased their dependency on unauthorised contractors and recruiters many of whom pressure them to work as bonded labour. Given these circumstances, ensuring safe mobility and alacrity of justice for migrant workers must be our highest priority.

Building from the same concern, the Pravasi Bandhu programme of Caritas India recognised the need of the hour and organised a theme-based training which focussed on imparting the understanding of law and rights for the migrant workers. Thus a portable structure was created to benefit all internal migrants with a special focus on India’s 140 million seasonal migrant workers. These workers belong to the most marginalised sections of society and face a disproportionate level of exploitation.

The first day of the three days programme meeting began with an input session on legal aid and grievances handling by Adv. Subhash George, a  labour lawyer. Mr Subhash has been part of many trade unions in Goa. He started the session by laying out the background and trends of migrant workers subjected to injustice and denied benefits despite the country’s numerous labour laws. He discussed a number of labour laws that are not being properly implemented, including the Interstate Workers Act, the Minimum Wage Act, the Trade Union Act, the Industrial Disputes Act, and the rest. However, all of these acts have been incorporated into four labour codes, which ultimately do not benefit migrant workers and are significantly diluted at various levels. Moreover, protection issues have also seen a rise in recent years

During the group activity session, each group presented some important points regarding legal aid and complaints that they frequently encounter while working with migrant workers, such as complaints for unpaid or delayed wages, the rights of NGOs to intervene, and so on. Explanations and solutions for handling all such matters on the ground level were addressed by Mr. Subhash.

Mr. Chaitanya Prakash Audichya, Asst. Labour Commissioner and Human Rights Adviser, led the second session, which was centred on safeguarding protocols. He provided participants with a wealth of useful information on various topics including contractor licensing and responsibilities, wage rates, relocation expenses, travel alliances, and employer obligations. He also spoke about various forms of migration problems, and some startling facts covered by NITI Ayog and other civil society groups in National Migration Policy. He then threw some light on the components of an “Ideal Migration Policy” and recommended Caritas India contribute to its formation.

The second-day review meeting was organised aimed at helping in assessing the two years’ progress of the Pravasi Bandhu, programme implemented by 9 partners across the 8 states of India. The review meeting recommended a platform for sharing and learning the programme implementation nuances, key highlights, strategies and the challenges adopted by the partners while implementing the programme in their respective regions. Fr. Jolly, Assistant Executive Director of Caritas India joined the review meeting with opening remarks: “Life with Dignity”, and the necessity of ensuring it across all programme implementation levels. He contended that the cause of migration is forced due to rapid urbanisation and the creation of big cities. He suggested the need for expanding the vision by “accompanying the migrant workers in their journey than just working with them”.

Ms. Babita Pinto, Chief lead – Programmes of Caritas India, presented the core vertical of the programme which encompasses a multidimensional approach including improving earning opportunities of migrant workers and safe migration as well as dignity and decent living standards. She also discussed some key strategies such as creating awareness among the migrant workers, skill building, linking them with employee financial inclusion opportunities, ensuring identity cards, registration, creating a database for rights and entitlements, and other benefits.

The partner’s organisations shared their two-year work experiences working as a stakeholder at the community, district and state levels. Caritas Goa presented a few remarkable case studies and discussed the debilitating work carried out in developing national policies and forging alliances at multiple levels. Programme coordinators from Caritas India also presented the details of the work being done at the national level. They also shared the recommendations highlighted in the national conference baseline evaluations and a few observations that were bought to light by accompanying visits.

On the third and final day of the programme, Fr. Paul, Executive Director of Caritas India delivered his opening remark on the importance of the proposal development workshop. In his address to the audience, he expressed his gratitude to everyone engaged in working for the rights and entitlements of migrant workers. He shed some light on the beginning of the Pravasi Bandhu programme and the circumstances that led to its creation around that time, particularly the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic. Fr Paul strongly emphasised Safety, Dignity, and Accessibility, as crucial elements of the programme as it moves forward. He asserted the importance of reimagining a new future that will enable migrants to experience a real tangible change in their life. “Doing so will enable creative problem-solving, the fusion of fresh perspectives and the offering of novel ideas to the migrant’s communities “ he added.’ He then gave an overview of some of the programme’s activities, including short-term housing, MRC run by migrants, and the potential for document portability for various entitlement cards.

Ms Babita commenced the proposal development workshop by following up on some of the pointers that were given by the Executive Director, Fr. Paul as well as the highlights and challenges that emerged in the last two days of the workshop. Some of the highlights included focussing on source and destination, collectivization of workers, Skill and reskilling, volunteer-led Migration resource centre, campaigns for larger sensitization on safe channels of migration, legal advisor and advisory group, synchronization of labour cards for benefits, evidence affiliated data generation, research-led approach for creating state level migration policy pursuit.

The workshop was structured around different organisations. All the team members brainstormed on the outcomes and indicators in the first half of the session with subsequent presentations by the group which then led to conversations around many key concerns revolving around the migrant community. These included

• Working with local police, labour departments and panchayat as important stakeholders.
• Creating Help Desks and volunteer groups.
• Campaigns ensuring dignity
• Using more inclusive terminology
• State-level comprehensive legislation to provide social security to domestic workers
• Implementation of BOCW (Building and Other Construction Workers) and registration and renewal for migrants
• Interface with the source partners for common strategies,
• SOP on MRC

The eventful three-day programme ended with high spirit sentiment among the participants who were now better equipped with resources and knowledge to create a positive impact in the lives of migrant workers.