Migrant issues for special consideration.

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Migrants issues for special consideration.

         As the motivated rumors spread,that the migrant workers in Tamil Nadu would be attacked by the locals,the north-bound railway trains filled up.It was reminiscent how during Covid the sudden denial of employment, shelter and transport saw migrants walking long distance to their home states.That was perhaps the first time that the existence of large number of migrant workers without any legal protection whatsoever,was widely noticed.

        In the current case,the Tamil Nadu government was prompt in assuring that there was not really any threat to migrants even as it put police on full alert to prevent any untoward incidents.But it is also true that the past several months have seen complaints that migrant laborers have displaced locals,plus calls to reserve employment for the locals.Karnataka government has introduced a bill for reserving a certain percentage of employment for locals.Subnational groups have also stepped up a campaign against the "northern invision".

Hundred years ago

       One is reminded of a poem Mahakavi Subrahmanya Bharati  wrote Tamil around 100 years ago,about the plight of migrant Hindu women working in the cane fields in Fiji: " Should the tears of those wretched poor be rained on earth to merge therewith?....In utter misery they die and die, with none to succor them."

     Indian labor  laws  are also almost a century old.The colonial government never wanted to extend to British India the labor legislations prevailing in the UK.Indentured labor were 'freely' kidnapped away from India to several other British ruled areas including Fiji, Mauritius,West Indies and in Africa.The Indian Penal Code actually provided punishment for workers who escaped servitude.

       When the case of indentured labor and their forced migration came to the notice of the Royal Commission of labor,it commissioned a study.But the colonial government did nothing to safeguard the interests of migrant labor who were thronging the cities in search of employment in factories.

     Meanwhile,ILO at its 21st session adopted the Migration for Employment convention,1939.In 1975,there was the 143rd convention concerning Migrations in Abusive conditions and the promotion of Equality of Opportunity and Treatment of Migrant workers.Recommendation 151 also dealt with migrant workers.All these recommendations were only concerned about migration of workmen from one country to another country.Because the British kept British India and other colonies as separate countries,the recommendations did have some meaning at that time.

States and laws

    It was only after the reorganization of states on a linguistic basis in 1956 that different states began to have their own labor legislations.Though the discussion on migrant labor increased, the organized trade unions jennifer took up their issues for special consideration.In most sectors like coal,steel,docks and plantations the issue was not dealt with independently.The problem of migrant labor was dealt with only along with the general problems of other workmen.

      It was only three decades after the Independence that parliament thought of enacting a special legislation: the Inter-state Migrant Workmen(Regulation of Employment and Conditions of service)Act,1979.This defined an inter-state migrant workmen as "any person who is recruited by or through a contractor in one state under an agreement or other arrangement for employment in an establishment in another state, whether with or without the knowledge of the principal employer in relation to such establishment."

    In 1984,on finding that a large number of workmen from Odisha were in engaged in a hydel project in Jammu with no legislation worth its name covering them,the Supreme Court observed that it was clear that the inter-state Migrant Workmen Act was enacted to eliminate abuses by the contractors sardars or .

 Atrocities and encounters

 

     In 2014 there was a newspaper report of a gruesome incident involving chopping of the palms of two migrant workers in Odisha.This became a basis for  motu action by SC and thereafter several orders were pronounced about this case.

    In 2012,five men who were suspected to be involved in two major bank robberies in Chennai were killed in an encounter with police Four were said to be from Bihar and one from West Bengal.One was reported to be an engineering student.These persons were shot dead only due to suspicion and their encounter death did not result in any inquiry against the policemen involved.HC also dismissed the PIL filed in this regard.Therefore,it is easy for local police to make allegations against strangers in the locality (migrant workers) and finish the case by encounter.

     In 2015 laborers taken from rural districts from Tamil Nadu for timber work were shot dead by Andhra Pradesh police on suspicion of smuggling Red Sander wood from AP forests.There were as many as 20 laborers killed in that encounter.

     The problems faced by inter-state migrant labor cannot be addressed only through a labor legislation.There are other issues like shelter,civic rights,right to get civic amenities.Now there is also a security question.Any change in law must also take into account all these factors.Another issue is when people from the scheduled area go to other states and loss their status as a Scheduled Tribe.So parliament has to consider a special legislation that deals with all aspects of Migrant workers' right in including their security and civic rights and not just the labor issues.