No Covid lessons learned, India still lacks comprehensive data on migrant workers: Study

Despite the devastating humanitarian crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there is still no comprehensive data available on migrant workers. As a result, coherent policy measures and effective social security schemes for migrants remain largely unimplemented, according to a recent study.

The study, conducted by the Policy and Development Advisory Group (PDAG), with support from the Centre for Microfinance (CmF), between December 2023 and June 2024, found that little has been learned from the devastating COVID-19 crisis of 2020–21.

The pandemic exposed the deep vulnerabilities, precarious conditions, and exploitation faced by migrant workers, largely due to the lack of adequate social protection and the absence of reliable, up-to-date data.

National database

The study aimed to assess migrant workers' access to social security benefits in four districts: Rajsamand and Beawar in Rajasthan, and Bahraich and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. The study found that, to date, there is no nationally recognised or uniform policy definition for internal migration or for identifying a labour migrant.

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In December 2020, a Parliamentary Standing Committee recommended the urgent creation of a national database on migrant workers. The proposed database would include records of returning migrants, information about their source and destination locations, previous employment history, and details of their skills.

e-Shram portal has yet to specifically identify migrant workers as a distinct category during the registration process. It hence functions more as a general database of workers rather than a tool for delivering targeted welfare benefits.

In 2021, the Ministry of Labour and Employment launched the e-Shram portal to create a comprehensive national database of unorganised workers. The initiative aimed to register workers from the unorganised sector and underscored the need for a strong, long-term social security framework to support the vast population of migrant workers across the country. In 2022 and 2023, the Supreme Court directed the Ministry to ensure that all workers registered on the e-Shram portal were effectively linked to relevant welfare benefits.

As of April 10, 2024, a total of 29.53 crore unorganised sector workers have registered on the e-Shram portal across India. Uttar Pradesh leads with 8.35 crore registrations, while Rajasthan ranks sixth with 1.37 crore.

Identifying migrant workers

However, the portal has yet to specifically identify migrant workers as a distinct category during the registration process. As a result, in the context of migration, the e-Shram portal functions more as a general database of workers rather than a tool for delivering targeted welfare benefits.

There remains a significant gap in granular data and state-level estimates on internal labour migration, including key migration corridors and the extent to which migrant households can access social protection schemes.

Salil Srivastava, State Programme Officer at Tata Trusts, who led the flagship migration initiative and study in Uttar Pradesh, told The Federal, “Despite genuine concerns and the intent to act, public policy discourse in India still lacks clarity on how to precisely define who qualifies as a migrant. The e-Shram portal captures data on unorganised workers but does not provide specific figures on migrant workers."

Crucial distinctions

"By treating unorganised workers as a single broad category, policymakers risk overlooking the crucial distinctions between migrants and non-migrants. This lack of differentiation poses significant challenges in identifying eligibility, ensuring access, and improving the uptake of social welfare schemes," Srivastava further said.

“There is a pension scheme for construction workers under the Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) Welfare Scheme, but eligibility begins only at the age of 60. In reality, most migrant labourers in the construction sector are unable to work beyond the age of 45 due to health issues. Ideally, they should start receiving a pension once they retire from active work.

"Moreover, to access the scheme’s benefits, workers must present an employer’s certificate verifying 90 days of employment as a construction worker. However, contractors are often unwilling to issue such certificates. This highlights the urgent need to review and make social security schemes more flexible in terms of eligibility criteria,” he added.

Institutional gaps

According to the study, several institutional gaps persist, including the lack of extensive mapping of destinations, workers' skills, employers, and work sites, as well as coverage of eligible social welfare schemes.

There is also a shortage of reliable data on migration corridors, the underlying drivers, and the nature of migration specific to source states. Additionally, there is an absence of concrete inter-state coordination mechanisms to effectively manage and support migrant labour.

One of the key recommendations, according to Srivastava, is the need for migrant-level data to be maintained at the Panchayat level. This would ensure that whenever migrants leave their native villages, a local record is readily available, which can be quickly accessed in case of emergencies.

“Even now, there is no reliable data on the number of migrant workers from states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Rajasthan after the COVID-19 pandemic,” he noted. “Kerala remains a rare exception in this regard.”

No comprehensive plan

Labour economist Santosh Mehrotra observes, “Even today, there is no comprehensive plan in place for migrant workers. A government that turned a blind eye during the 2020 migrant exodus still offers little beyond the free and transferable ration scheme, which itself remains inadequately streamlined for many migrants.

"The reverse migration triggered by COVID-19 continues, as non-farm job creation remains stagnant. Due to poor economic policy management since the pandemic, around 80 million workers have been pushed back into agriculture by 2023–24, raising the share of agricultural employment to 46.1per cent. This marks a clear reversal of structural transformation in the economy.”

There is an urgent need to establish a framework for inter-state information sharing on the movement of migrant workers.

When it comes to housing for migrant workers, the Contract Labour Act, 1970 mandates that employers provide safe accommodation. However, this legal requirement is rarely enforced in practice.

Housing policies

Urban planners have largely overlooked migrant labourers in housing policies meant for the urban poor. A major gap lies in the severe shortage of affordable rental housing options for migrant workers, often forcing them to live in overcrowded spaces with inadequate living conditions and poor sanitation.

Kerala stands out as the only state with the Apna Ghar scheme, which offers clean and safe hostel accommodations for migrant workers at affordable rates.

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The One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme, introduced in 2018 to enable ration card portability across states, had the potential to significantly benefit migrant workers, provided a unified and updated database existed. However, maintaining accurate beneficiary data across states remains a major challenge.

The study found that ONORC uptake among migrants is quite low, largely due to limited awareness of the process and the dependence of left-behind family members on ration supplies at the source location. Rajasthan, for instance, has a low uptake rate of just 15.9 per cent, compared to 43.5 per cent in Uttar Pradesh.

Inter-state info sharing

Mallicka Srivastava, Executive Director of the Centre for Microfinance (CmF), told The Federal, “There is an urgent need to establish a framework for inter-state information sharing on the movement of migrant workers. Although several states have continued with the migrant worker registration initiatives started during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is currently very poor updating of information by the workers themselves on these portals. This is a crucial area where collaboration between the government, NGOs, and donors could make a meaningful impact.

"Additionally, the idea of a ‘migrant embassy’, a physical office set up by the source state government in the destination state, could offer much-needed support and assurance to workers during times of distress.”

Despite various measures announced by the central and state governments in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, migrant workers' access to social security benefits remains limited in the regions covered by the study. In both Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, migrant workers are largely excluded from the political economy of the states, resulting in restricted access to social welfare schemes.