Sustainable Development for Migrant Workers

The challenges facing migrant labourers in the country are quite complex. The Census 2011 found that India has approximately 139 million internal migrants. The Covid-19 pandemic has made the issue of the migrant labourers come out in the open as the effects of the lockdown on them were quite devastating.

The government needs to craft a sustainable strategy for these migrant labourers. Unless we view migrant workers as a dynamic part of a changing India, we will not be able to solve the problem of urbanisation. The central government, after 41 years since the Inter-state Migrant Workmen Act, 1979 was implemented, has now regarded these migrant workers as an entity that can be given social security and health benefits through the Employees’ State Insurance corporation. The importance of migrant workers in the economy can be seen in numbers, as 43% of Delhi’s and Mumbai’s population are migrants.