MIGRANT WORKERS AND HUMAN RIGHTS

By: Priyanshu Parasar

Abstract: This research paper is based on different migrant workers and violation of their
rights amid the pandemic. This paper in brief discuss all the problems that these people faced
during the days and are facing. It also discuss about some laws for migrant workers in India.
How their rights violates and what are step taken by Government for their welfare and
protection. This paper in some detail talk about loopholes that are in the labor laws and also in
conclusion give some suggestions for their problems. This paper is an overview of condition of
Migrant workers amid nationwide lockdown.

Keywords – Migrant workers, Basic Rights, Violation of Right, Covid-19, Conditions, Laws.

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“A migrant worker from  Assam lost the battle of life due to starvation at Ranchi in Jharkhand
amid lockdown. The police recovered the lockdown-hit migrant worker in a dying condition on
Wednesday. He went to Ranchi in search of work before the COVID19 pandemic affected the
country. But after imposition of the first nationwide lockdown with effect from March 24
midnight and extension of the same, he had to remain stranded in Ranchi.”

While reading newspaper this was the line or first news which attracts attention of most of us.
This is the real situation of migrant workers in India. One can easily understand their condition
by reading only some news articles published daily, in different newspapers and social media.
You can easily find out number of human right violations in this case. This is story of only one
worker among thousands who are going through same situation.

INTRODUCTION:

Before discussing problems, situation, their rights and various laws in India. It is much important
to first understand, who are migrant workers? So, Migrant workers are “casual and unskilled
workers who move about systematically from one region to another or their own country to
other in search of work and offers their services on a temporary, usually seasonal, basis”.

According to "United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant
Workers and Members of Their Families"i the term "migrant worker" refers to a person who
is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a
nation”. Basically, they were the people behind our beautiful buildings, different luxurious
goods.

According to International Labor Organization (ILO), there were an estimated 164 million

migrant workers globally in 2017, out of which approximately 41.6% were female and
approximately 58.4% were male workers.

REASONS OF MIGRANT WORKER:

Shortage of rainfall or heavy flood, more population density, Areas facing unresolved social or
political conflicts and poverty are some of the crucial reason that pull the masses towards
migrant work. Migrant workers often have no protection or safety and are vulnerable to

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discrimination, poverty, and social and cultural handicaps. This all resulted into establishing rule
and regulations to protect these people. Like all human being migrant workers have too basic
human rights.

RIGHTS OF WORKERS:

Some of the rights present to migrant workers and their families contains in International
convention on the Protection of Migrant workers and their families includes:ii

 Right to freedom from forced labour.

 Right to have safe working conditions and a clean and safe working environment and
limitation to work hours, rest and leisure.
 Right to protection for the child from economic exploitation and from any work that may be
hazardous to his or her well-being and development.
 Right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of the migrant worker
and his or her family.
 Right to protection from sexual harassment in the workplace and to form or join trade union.
 Right to work and receive wages that contribute to an adequate standard of living and
education to their children.
 Right to equality before the law and equal protection of the law, particularly in regard to
human rights and labor legislation, regardless of a migrant's legal status.

COVID-19 AND MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS:

On January 30, the pandemic contagious disease “COVID-19” hits the coast of India.
Government of India on March 22 decided to impose a nationwide lockdown for 21 days. Whole
country become on pause button, all transport, industries, works stop for such period. This
affected migrant workers the most, those who were there; they have to stay there only because
they have no other option left.

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With factories and workplaces shut down, millions of migrant workers had to deal with the loss
of income, food shortages and uncertainty about their future. Following this, many of them and
their families went hungry.

While government schemes ensured that the poor would get additional rations due to the
lockdown, the distribution system failed to be effective. They have no work to do and many of
them were daily wage worker, here their right to work violates but this was only beginning.

After second lockdown their economic condition broke and they decided to return to their
hometown but here they face a new tragedy, all transport were closed and they decided to return
by walking. We heard many news and problems they face during their journey, many of them

lost their life too.

Even after returning their home they have no job or money to feed their family and themselves.
They tried to start some minimal workers for livelihood but due to increasing cases of Covid
they lost these works too. According to some reports, around 3- 4 crores migrant workers were
affected due to no work during lockdown. Many workers were trapped in different states and
government were not helping them. Not only in India but migrants workers all over the world
faces same problem.

Migrant workers are stuck in all parts of the world since the pandemic has disrupted
international travel. From Thailand, where migrant workers from Myanmar and Cambodia are
left unemployed without access to government aid due to their informal status and not being
registered under the social security system and unable to go home due to a strict border closure,
to the Gulf states where Indian and Pakistani workers stranded with no help from their
governments join around 127,000 Nepali stuck after losing their jobs and being denied the right
to return home by Nepali government. Countries face huge challenges to keep people safe during
the pandemic, but the response cannot be to deny citizens the right to return home.

Despite government promises and schemes to generate employment in rural areas, some migrant
workers began going back to the cities due to lack of employment in their hometowns, as
lockdown restrictions were reduced as part of Unlock 1.0 in June. A large number of these were
returning to Mumbai.

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The reopening of the regular services of the railways also helped facilitate this. The cities, too,
reported major shortages of labour, especially in the construction industry. A study conducted in
April-May stated that 77% migrant workers were prepared to return to cities for work. The return
of the migrants to cities is expected to help revive the economy, which had sustained an
impact. Some employers sponsored the travel of migrants back to their workplaces. This
included taxis, trains and even flights.iii

MEASURES TAKEN BY STATE GOVERNMENT:

During this chaotic period state as well as central government took many measures towards
migrant workers. But in reality system is somewhat failed to effectively protect these people and
these workers claims that government is doing nothing. Some of the measures taken by
governments were:

 Arranging food and shelter: State Government starts some shelter homes for the migrant
workers where free food and shelter were provided. But in statement given by these people to
media they said although there are such facilities on paper but we were not aware about such
facilities or we were not told about this. Seeing such condition and plight of workers,
Supreme Court ordered all the states to ensure food and shelter to all workers who were left
stranded by the lockdown.
 Provides free ration and economical relief: States Government ensured their citizens to
provide free ration to all at their door step and will send some money in their bank accounts.
But reality according to people was totally different, they faces problems in getting all this
help because some of them does not have ration card and some don’t have account in bank or
don’t have smartphone, so that they can apply for these schemes. System once again failed to
work effectively.

 Provide transport to send workers to their hometown: After seeing the exodus of migrant
workers and hearing news about problems during their journey and after too many criticism,
government decided to pull their workers citizens to their home back.

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 Government started “Shramik Special trains” to send workers to their hometown but has
started collecting some charges for the journey, this was of no use for these people who have
no money even for food.

After too many PIL filed regarding workers condition, Supreme Court on 28 May forbade
states government and railways from extracting fares from stranded migrant workers waiting
to return to their hometown amid lockdown and ensure that all migrant will reach their
destination within 15 day. The court further added that the state from where these workers
started their journey and the state where they were headed should pool all the travel expenses
between them.
 Evacuate workers for other countries: India on 5th may decide to evacuate his migrant
workers from different countries through operation Vande Bharat and operation
Samundra Setu. The former is evacuation through air while latter is evacuation through
water.

According to MEA ministry, over 7.88 lakh Indians have returned from abroad after the
government launched the "Vande Bharat" evacuation mission on May 7 in view of the
coronavirus pandemic and 4000 Indians have been brought back to their homeland by sea.

In this operation Indian Naval Ship Jalashwa Airvat, Shardul and Magar have participated,
this operation lasted over 55 days traversing more than 23,000 kms. More than 1000 flights
operated in operation Vande Bharat.

 Giving works to Migrant workers: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched an
employment scheme with an outlay of Rs50, 000 crore for migrant workers who returned to
their home states during the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
Launching the scheme, Modi said during the nationwide lockdown, the talent from cities
returned to villages and it will now give a boost to development of rural areas. The 'Garib
Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan' will be implemented on a mission mode in 125 days in 116
districts of six states -- Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and
Odisha that received the maximum numbers of migrant workers back.

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 Government has also increased number of workers to work under MNREGA to earn wages
on daily basis and their wages increases from Rs 182 to Rs 202 and extra RS 2000 to every
workers.

 Every state government were directed to utilize Rs 31,000 crore under the Building and
Other Construction Workers Fund to support 3.5 crore construction sector workers.

LAWS FOR MIGRANT WORKERS IN INDIA:

A country like India (large portion of whose population works as migrant workers) should have
laws for their protection. Most of the workers are often employed in risky jobs- industrial
accidents, exposure to hazardous chemicals, long working hours and these people are susceptible
to infectious diseases because of the very poor, crowded and unhygienic living conditions.

Some laws related to protection of Rights of migrant workers, some of them are:

1. Inter- State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979: It is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to

regulate the condition of service of inter-state labourers in Indian labour law. The Act's
purpose is to protect workers whose services are requisitioned outside their native states in
India. Whenever an employer faces shortage of skills among the locally available workers,
the act creates provision to employ better skilled workers available outside the state. iv

2. Unorganized workers Social Security Act, 2009: This act get president assent on 30
December 2008. It is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to provide for the social
security and welfare of the unorganized workers (meaning home-based workers, self-
employed workers or daily-wage workers). This act recommend formulation of social
security schemes viz life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits, old age
protection and any other benefit as may be determined by the Government for unorganized
workers. v

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3. Other acts for migrant workers are:

 Minimum wages Act, 1948: This act set a minimum wages according to kind of work,
working hour and location.
 Factories Act, 1948 & workmen’s compensation Act, 1923: This act provide the safety law
during work and provide compensation if any injuries, accident happens during course of
employment.
 Bonded labour system (Abolition) Act, 1976: This act abolishes bonded labour.

Some Articles enshrined in constitution of India for migrant workers:

 Article 21 prohibits child labour under age of 14 in any hazardous place.

 Article 23 prohibits human trafficking and any kind of forced labour.

 Article 41 provides “Right to Work” which means that every citizen of the country has the
right to work and the state with the best of its abilities will secure the right to work and
education.
 Article 43(a) says that State shall take steps, by suitable legislation or in any other way, to
secure the participation of workers in the management of undertakings, establishments or
other organizations engaged in any industry.

LOOPHOLES IN EXECUTION OF LAWS:

Although there are many laws for protection of migrant workers in India but all these seem to be
ineffective due to its poor effect and loopholes present in it. Workers are exploited by their
employers/contractors. Here are some of the workers right violations:

 Violation of Right to Protection of workers at workplace is something we heard mostly.

Women workers were badly treated during their working period and some of them are
molested.

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 Right to have safe working environment is something which is not much seriously taken by
employer. Worker’s Compensation Act, 1923 talk about compensation in case of any
accident occurred in the course of work but there are many poor workers who are fighting for
this right, they were injured in one re another way during their work.

 Equal wages Act says there should be equal wage for same work and no one can be
discriminated on the basis of their gender. But reality is totally different, the female workers
always complains that they were getting much less wage in comparison to their male
colleague for same work.

An article published in BBC news, “Four women employees from Google are trying to
represent 10,000 of their peers in a gender-pay disparity suit against the company. The
women in the filing said that Google paid women approximately $16,794 less per year than
“the similarly-situated man," Bloomberg noted. "Google paid women less base salary,
smaller bonuses, and less stock than men in the same job code and location.

 Laws says there is provision to give extra wages for extra work done my workers and there
is fixed number of hours to work. But reality is something else and that is not even hidden
from concerned administrations. Workers are forced to work more hours without any extra
allowance. Even they are paid much less than fixed by the government.

 There are many schemes and welfare funds given to these migrant works by industry where
they work or by government but none of them are benefitted by those schemes. All
schemes are enjoyed by the government officials or by concerned authorities through
scandals. In 2019, a scandal of UPPCL and DHFL Employee Provident Fund of Rs 4,000
crore came in light.

 Whistleblower Protection Act, 2014 protects the person who complains about illegal
activity or activity in violation of company policy at an employer. A whistleblower can be
an employee, supplier, client, contractor, or anyone who may have insight into any illegal
activity occurring at a business or organization. Those complaints are often voiced in

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 public or reported to government or law enforcement agencies. But have often been fired
by the company they work for. Whistleblowers who do retain their jobs may face
blacklisting, demotions, overtime exemptions, benefit denial, threats, reassignment, or a
reduction in pay.

 It is duty of state to ensure food, shelter and provide basic necessity to them but amid
lockdown their condition shows ineffectiveness of government system to provide all these
to poor. Everyone citizen are witness for all the acts happened with those poor.

SOME JUDGMENTS:

 Bandhua Mukhti Morcha v UOI & ors.(1997): This PIL was filed via Article 32 of the
Indian Constitution directly before the Supreme Court of India and petitioned the Court to
direct the State of Uttar Pradesh (UP) to take steps to end child labor. In the judgment, the
Court discussed the importance of protecting children’s rights to education, health, and
development in ensuring India’s progress as a democracy.  While recognizing that child labor
could not be abolished immediately due to economic necessity, the Court found that
pragmatic steps could be taken to protect and promote the rights of children in the poverty-
stricken and vulnerable populations of Indian society. The Court also noted India’s
obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child to provide free primary education for all children in
the country, and to protect children against economic exploitation.vi

 Sanjit Roy v. State of Rajasthan (1983): In this case it has been held that the payment of
wages lower than the minimum wages to the person employed on Famine Relief Work is
violative of Art. 23. Whenever any labour or service is taken by the State from any person
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 who is affected by drought and scarcity condition the State cannot pay him less wage than
the minimum wage on the ground that it is given them to help to meet famine situation. The
State cannot take advantage of their helplessness.vii

 Randhir Singh v UOI (1997) : In the Judgment the Supreme Court has held that although
the principle of 'equal pay for equal work' is not expressly declared by our Constitution to be
a fundamental right, but it is certainly a constitutional goal under Articles 14, 16 and 39 (c)
of the Constitution. This right can, therefore, be enforced in cases of unequal scales of pay
based on irrational classification. The decision in this case has been followed in a number of
cases by the Supreme Court.viii

SUGGESTIVE SOLUTIONS OF THE PROBLEMS:

We have discussed several problems faced by Migrant workers, here are some suggestive
measures that should be taken by government to uplift the condition of the people:

 It should make mandatory for every industries to give their workers salary directly into their
bank account or directly to them instead of paying them through contractors, because
contractors always keep some salaries of these people. Industries should help their workers to
open a bank account.
 Amid this pandemic many workers lost their job or their companies fires them, government
should take immediate and strict action against those employees.
 There should be a workers helpdesk department in every company, which is in directly
contact with state concerned authorities of labour ministry and these department have to
mention all the data of the workers, their work and wages.
 India should ratify all the conventions of International Labour Organization (ILO).
Currently, India has ratified six fundamental conventions of ILO out of eight. It has not
ratified Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948
(No. 87) and Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

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 The decision of some state to allow sweeping exemptions from labour laws including
Industrial Dispute Act and Factories Act and accepting the request of employees to extend
the work hour of workers from 8 hours to 12 hours a day. This will violates an International
Labour Organization convention which India had ratified a hundred years back. Except for
the some states, other states have not even promised higher overtime wage rates for the extra
hours. Central government should have to discuss on the decision.
 About 80% Indian migrants are poor. They migrate to support their families and remit their
all earnings. Consequently, on distress return they encounter dire economic situation at
home. To overcome this situation government can ‘insure’ the migrant workers, so on
distress return, they can start their own businesses; can grant them soft loans; These workers
can also be given preference in opening up SMEs and Government should establish a
pension fund and contingency fund for them.

CONCLUSION:

We should remember that migrant workers are also human being like us, they have right to enjoy
all their rights given by different laws and statues. But most of the time they faces discrimination
based on sex, age. They are the people behind our beautiful buildings and luxurious goods that
are enjoyed by us. No one can even imagine survival of any industry or companies without these
workers. Although India has number of laws and statute for their protection and right but this all
does not seems to be effective. Government should take some strict and immediate step for the
people.

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i
UN(1990)
ii
https://www.pdhre.org/rights/migrants.html
iii
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_migrant_workers_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic#Reverse_exodus
iv Interstate Migrant Workmen Act 1979)
v Press Information Bureau English Releases
vi 10 SCC 549
vii AIR 1983 SC 328
vii AIR 1997 SC 3014

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vi

vii

viii