What is Empowerment?

Empowerment has been defined as an intentional ongoing process centered in the local
community, involving mutual respect, critical reflection, caring, and group participation, through
which people lacking an equal share of valued resources gain greater access to and control
over those resources; or a process by which people gain control over their lives, democratic
participation in the life of their community, and a critical understanding of their environment.

Need of Empowerment
Who are migrant workers?

There are several definitions of migrant workers given in the international instruments.
According to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and Members of their Families 1990, the term migrant worker refers to a person who is to be
engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or
she is not a national”.
The UNESCO Glossary defines a migrant as any person who lives temporarily or permanently
in a country where he or she was not born and has acquired some significant social ties to this
country”.
According to the International Organization for Migration, a migrant is a person who moves
away from his or her place of usual residence, whether within a country or across an
international border, temporarily or permanently, and for a variety of reasons. In short, a migrant
is any person who lives temporarily or permanently in a country where he or she was not born.

Demographics of migrant workers

Demographics of Migrant Workers Let us take a quick review of demographics migrant workers
based on the Census of India 2001. India’s total population in 2001 was 1.03 billion, out of which
about 30% (307 million) were reported as migrants from the place of birth.
It is pertinent to note that, Maharashtra state received the highest number of migrants (7.9
million) from other states and other countries, followed by Delhi (5.6 million) and West Bengal
(5.5 million). The number of migrants in India rose by 32.9% in the decade 1991-2001
compared to the previous decade. The data from the Census of 2011 shows that the total
number of internal migrants in India was 45.36 crore which is 37% of the country’s total
population.
In the absence of official data regarding the number of migrant workers in the year 2020, we
may consider Professor Amitabh Kundu’s estimation. He states that there are a total 65 million
inter-state migrants in India, of which 33% are workers, 30% are casual workers and another
30% work on the regular basis in the informal sector.
If street vendors (which are not covered by the workers’ data) are added to this, 12 to 18 million
people are residing outside the states of their origin and are at risk of losing their source of
income due to lockdown. According to him, out of the total inter-state migrants, 25% belong to
Uttar Pradesh alone, 14% belong to Bihar, 6% Rajasthan & 5% belong to Madhya Pradesh.
A study conducted jointly by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) and Azim
Premji University in the year 2019 shows that almost 29% of the total population of mega cities
in India is of daily wage earners, and this is the actual figure of migrants willing to travel back to
their native states.

https://treaties.un.org/doc/Treaties/1990/12/19901218%2008-12%20AM/Ch_IV_13p.pdf
https://censusindia.gov.in/Data_Products/Data_Highlights/Data_Highlights_link/
A Migrant Worker’s Monthly Household Income

A Survey conducted by the CSDS from 2017-19 published in Indian Express epaper dated 27
May 2020, found that, of the total migrant workers, 22% earn Rs. 2,000; 32% earn between Rs.
2,000 and 5,000; 25% earn between Rs. 5,000 and 10,000; 13% earn between Rs. 10,000 and
20,000 and only 8% earn more than Rs.20,000 per month. It shows their poor economic
condition and unsustainability, particularly during the lockdown.
-https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/opinion-the-lockdown-and-our-crisis-of-interstate
-migrants-11585560071429.html
https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/salman-khurshid-congress-leadership-migrant-labourer
s-economic-crisis-covid-modi-govt-inequality

Problems of Migrant Workers - Post Covid-19 Lockdown

Millions of migrant workers were working in metro cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Ahmedabad,
Surat and other cities of India. However, in December 2019, Covid-19 virus outbreak occurred in
China and reached India at the end of January 2020. Slowly cases of Covid-19 infection started
increasing in India, but the Government could not do much towards prevention of Covid-19 until
a one fine day ‘Janata Curfew'' was declared on 22 March 2020.16 After a gap of one day,
suddenly on 24 March 2020 evening, a nationwide lockdown was announced by the Honourable
Prime Minister Narendra Modi which was to be implemented from midnight, and he appealed all
to stay wherever they were.
The movement of people had been banned, all the Industrial enterprises except the essential
goods & services were ordered to stop working. Shopping malls, markets, religious places, and
restaurants were completely shut down.
The sudden and uninformed lockdown with the notice of just four hours for preparation,
rendered millions of migrant workers, daily wagers and street vendors jobless, and they were
stranded in the cities where they worked. They lost their source of income and became captives
in their home. Small and temporary housing made them breathless; restricted movement and
the workless-ness coupled with homesickness had a significant physical and psychological
impact on their health.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_migrant_workers_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/pm-announces-21-day-lockdown-as-covid-19-toll-touch
es-10/article31156691.ece

Causes of the seasonal migration

Seasonal migration has long been a practice for improving livelihoods in rural areas, with some
male members of the family leaving the village for part of the year to look for paid work. In the
last few decades, however, there has been a growing incidence of ‘distress seasonal migration’.
This occurs due to the lack of livelihood options after the harvest of the monsoon crop (kharif) in
most rain fed parts of the country, which gives rise to indebtedness and food insecurity.
This forces the entire family to leave home in search of work in order to survive. Persistent
drought and environmental degradation have led to the escalation of this trend. Children, who
have no choice but to accompany their parents, drop out of schools and are forced into hard
labour.

How Migrant worker childrens are affected

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 A. Health issues
B. Psychological
C. Education
D. Staying facility

A. Health issues

At the destinations, the migrant children lived in huts made from asbestos sheets, or in
tents made from plastic sheets. Amenities were few and living conditions unhygienic,
leaving the children with no options other than to use whatever water was available, and
defecate in the open. The absence of basic hygiene and sanitation facilities, and
inadequate supply of potable drinking water has long-term implications for the growth,
development and the overall health and wellbeing of children and adolescents.

Traveling was particularly difficult and stressful for the children because they got little
food on the journey and that too, once a day. Even at the destinations, mealtimes were
irregular and sometimes, they were even missed altogether. Their usual diet consisted
of bhakri (made from millets) which is eaten with a chutney (a dry mix ground from a
mixture of chili, garlic and salt). The sleeping patterns of the children were also erratic
Taking their children to hospital entailed a loss of a day’s wages. As if this was not bad
enough, the parents were also required to pay a compensation (fine/penalty) to the
other toli (group) members for the shortfall in wages resulting from loss of output.

Seasonal migrant children at the destinations are also at risk of missing their
immunization schedule because of parental neglect due to their working pattern, as well
as the distant location of public health facilities, which made it almost impossible for the
migrant parents to get their children immunized according to schedule. Moreover, as the
responses show, there was little interaction between the migrants and the local
communities because of which important information, such as availability of health
services at the destination, was not made available to the migrants, thereby worsening
their unawareness.

B. Psychological

The migrant children in this study had emotional and psychological issues, which were
outcomes of living away from their villages for long periods in an unfamiliar and
challenging environment.
For their emotional needs, the children in this study relied on friends, their mothers,
grandparents, fathers and sisters. They tried to avoid seeking support or help from
uncles, aunts, cousins, neighbors, and others. Thus, the children often felt lonely and
depressed in the absence of their parents. As compared to migrants and stayback
children, the non-migrant children in this study had a wider social network for meeting
material and emotional needs.
The study also found that migrants, especially the children, had erratic sleep timings.
Thus, when they wake up, they are often in a moody and irritated state of mind, which is
reflected in their behavior and psycho-social health.

Migration affects the psycho-social health of the adolescents to an extent that they are
prone to indulging in risky behavior. They acquire habits that have adverse effect on
their health. As the village level stakeholders reported, many migrant parents were
regular consumers of alcohol, a practice which influenced their children into following
them at a young age.

Vulnerabilities of abuse and violence

Many children reported that they felt unsafe during the journey to the destination as they
had no proper shelter and had to sleep in the open near the tractor. They spoke about
the poor living arrangements at the destinationOften, the children felt insecure and
lonely when they were left alone in their huts by their parents. A factory manager
reported that quarrels between migrants often made the children feel vulnerable.

Some children reported that they were subjected to taunts and verbal abuse by local
residents when they played in open spaces or loitered in the neighbourhood. Some
parents confirmed the existence of ‘outsider insider’ (migrant vs local villagers) conflict.
They added that they were worried for their children’s safety due to this antagonism of
local communities towards them and their children. Some parents said that they did not
allow their children to play, confining them to their living area to ensure their safety,
implying that the mobility of children at destination worksites is restricted to the
immediate vicinity.

Data from NGO representatives indicates that several small makeshift shops, including
those selling tobacco and locally produced molasses-based liquor are set up close to
the residential camps. Their proximity to the dwellings of the migrants enables easy
access to substances, thereby increasing the risk of their use. One mukadam also
reported that some of the migrant children at the destination start drinking alcohol at the
early age of 15 to 16 years
C. Education

Nearly 200,000 children below the age of 14 accompany their parents when they
migrate for cane harvesting in Maharashtra every year liv . Over half of them are in the
age group of 6 - 14 years (54% boys and 46% girls).
Children are drawn into the labour force from the early age of 6 - 7 years and by the age
of 11 - 12 years they are full-fledged labour. Their labour is subsumed under the
category of family labour . Children of migrant cane cutters are among the most
excluded from and deprived of their Right to Education Xlvii.
Social workers working on child rights and education in the region believe that the
nomadic lifestyle of cane-cutter parents further alienates their children from the
education system. Adolescent girls face more deprivation than that faced by boys as
they have additional responsibilities of care work, fetching water and household chores.
Water scarcity puts additional pressure and young children spend several hours fetching
water. Reports of children in Need dying while fetching water is an annual affair.
Children of migrant cane-cutting workers are unable to restart school after returning to
their villages after migration season due to non-attendance and discontinuation of
studies for six months; this results in dropouts. Shakhar Shalas are temporary second
semester schools set up by the sugar mills in Maharashtra that provides continued
schooling during migration season so that the children can continue after going back to
their village.

Reasons for not going to school

During the interview, the parents who reported that their children are not going to school
were asked about the reasons for not going to school. In this regard, multiple reasons
were received from the parents against each child. It may be recalled that, a total of 52
children were not going to school at the time of survey either at source or at destination
D. Staying facility

At Destination Sites
The migrant children lived in makeshift huts and often, without any provision for safe drinking
water and adequate sanitation facilities. The sharp edges of sugarcane leaves caused injuries
(similar to deep paper cuts) to the children. The children were also prone to insect bites at the
worksites and in their huts.
At Source Villages

The migration of parents impaired their children’s social support system, especially for those
who stayed back. Thus, their safety and protection needs often remained unmet.
Although the migrant children were engaged in work in their source villages as well as at the
destinations, the average time spent at work was several times more at the destinations. Girls
had the responsibility of caring for their younger siblings, doing domestic chores at the source
villages while their parents were away; and at the destination worksites when they accompanied
their parents. Moreover, some also cared for their grandparents in source villages during the
absence of their parents.

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