1

Labour Migration and Exploitation:

Internal and International Human Trafficking of Indian

Migrant Labour

ABSTRACT
This paper deals with the labour exploitation of Indian migrants internally and
internationally. The scope of the study is limited to the poor, landless, unskilled or semi-
skilled labour population. The instance of child labour is not included, the situation of
labourers consenting to such migration is focussed upon. The paper especially deals with
the plight of women migrants working as domestic workers through case studies.

The paper tries to answer whether labour migration, an important source of regional
integration and development has turned into a form of trafficking in persons due to lack of
limited public sympathy towards the vulnerable migrant labourers especially in India
which has led to labour exploitation, with severe violation of labour rights and a labour
market failure ?

INTRODUCTION
Globalization has created a situation which generated a worldwide phenomenon of
migration of millions of workers to other countries. Labour migration becomes one of the
most important sources of regional integration, where regulation of labour migration is
implemented at the regional level, for only such large integration unions that exploit the
advantages of markets, resource bases and labour potentials amalgamation, can hold out
against increasing competition within globalizing world. However, if migration is not
regulated by adequate laws and rules, it carries a high risk to violate the rights of people
participating in it and to create social tension.

Labour migration is complex. Streams differ in duration, origin, destination and migrant
characteristics. Internal mobility is critical to the livelihoods of many people, especially
tribal people, socially deprived groups and people from resource-poor areas. However,
because of lack of data, migration is largely invisible and ignored by policy makers.
International migration has also had considerable impacts on demographic structures,
 2

expenditure patterns, social structures and poverty levels. Impacts include reducing population
growth; enhancing the dependency burden within households; increasing consumption expenditures
and reducing poverty levels.

LABOUR MIGRATION AND EXPLOITATION

Forced labour, migration and trafficking
Key Words
As Migrant labour is a form of forced labour, thus, According to Forced Labour
Convention, 1930 (No. 29), one of the eight fundamental human rights convention of
International Labour Organisation (ILO), which India has also ratified, forced labour as
given in its article 21 means "all work or service which is exacted from any person under the
menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily."
Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105)2 ILO Convention No. 105 on
Abolition of Forced Labour specifies that forced labour, as defined by Convention No. 29,
can never be used as means of political coercion, for the purpose of economic development,
discrimination, labour discipline or as a punishment for having participated in strikes.
According to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant
Workers and Members of Their Families (1990)3, the term migrant worker refers to a

1 Article 2 of to Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), - For the purposes of this Convention
the term forced or compulsory labour shall mean all work or service which is exacted from any
person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself
voluntarily.

2 C105 - Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105)

3 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members
of Their Families. Adopted by General Assembly resolution 45/158 of 18 December 1990.
Article 2(1)-For the purposes of the present Convention: 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.
 3

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.
According to the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons,
Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime (2000)4, Trafficking in persons shall mean the
recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat
or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse
of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits
to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of
exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of
others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices
similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

Migration, Trafficking and Smuggling

Migration is, simply put, movement from one place to another. It can be assisted or independent
movement. It can be international or within a country. It can be by land, sea or air. It is everything
from tourism to moving somewhere for work. Expats are also migrants. It can be motivated by a
dream of a better life, and it can be something someone is made to do against his or her will.
Migration can be for survival and for pleasure. It can be easy or very difficult. A migrants aims
might be met, or s/he may face hurdles and unexpected outcomes. Migrants can be old or young,
any gender, any race, any nationality.

Trafficking starts out as recruitment or movement, and ends with exploitation. The Human
Trafficking Protocol in the 2000 UN Convention on Transnational Organised Crime5 includes
the definition of Trafficking that is now widely used as an international standard. The Trafficking
definition has three parts: Actions: the recruitment, transportation, or receipt of persons; means:

4 Art. 3(a) of Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women
and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime (2000).

5 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. What is human trafficking? Retrieved April 23,
2010, from http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html//
 4

threat or use of force, coercion or deception; and Purpose: exploitation (e.g. sexual exploitation,
forced labour, slavery, or removal of organs).

Smuggling: According to the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air,
supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
(2000)6, Smuggling of migrants shall mean the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or
indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of
which the person is not a national or a permanent resident. Smuggling of people is seen to involve
a voluntary agreement, to which the smuggled person has been a party. Smuggling occurs when
migrants, due to legal restrictions and lack of knowledge of legal channels, cannot freely move
across borders. Therefore they pay a smuggler to help them to get across the border. In practice it
may be hard to distinguish between smuggling and trafficking since the former may lead to the
latter.

Labour Migration in India

Internal Migration
Internal migration spurred primarily by employment and marriage helps shape the economic, social,
and political life of Indias sending and receiving regions. About two out of ten Indians are internal
migrants who have moved across district or state linesa rate notable for the sheer numbers who
move within a country with a population that tops 1.2 billion.7

More than two-thirds (69 percent) of Indias 1.21 billion people live in rural areas, according to the
2011 Census of India, but the country is rapidly urbanizing. The cities of Mumbai, Delhi, and
Kolkata are all among the worlds top ten most populous urban areas, and India has 25 of the 100

6 Article 3(a) of Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air,
supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (2000)

7 Internal Labour Migration in India Raises Integration Challenges for Migrants By Abbas,
Rameez and Divya Varma, Divya, March 3, 2014.//http://www.migrationpolicy.org .Last visited
on 6th March ,2017.
 5

fastest-growing cities worldwide. A significant source of this growth is rural-to-urban migration, as

an increasing number of people do not find sufficient economic opportunities in rural areas and
move instead to towns and cities. Provisional 2011 census data show that for the first time, Indias
urban population has grown faster than its rural population since the last census.

Despite Indias impressive rates of economic growth over the past three decades, vast numbers of
Indians are unable to secure a meaningful livelihood. In 2010, 29.8 percent of all Indians lived
below the national poverty line, while 33.8 percent of rural Indians lived below the national rural
poverty line, according to World Bank data. While wage and education gaps between rural and
urban Indians are declining, rural India is still characterized by agrarian distress, a chronic lack of
employment, and farmer suicides. Thus, the rural-urban divide has been one of the primary reasons
for Indias labour mobility. Generally, Indias poor have meagre physical assets and human capital
and belong largely to socially deprived groups such as scheduled castes (SC) and tribes (ST).
Women share an extraordinary burden of deprivation within households. The poor rely on different
types of work to construct a livelihood, wage labour and cultivation are the most important. Poor
households participate extensively in migration.

Policy Implementation for Internal Migration

The Ministry of Labour at centre and the Departments of Labour, at state levels, are responsible for
formulating and implementing measures to protect migrant workers. Certain existing labour laws
aim to improve the conditions of migrant workers and prevent their exploitation. The important
ones are: the Inter State Migrant Workmen (Regulation and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979; the
Minimum Wages Act, 1948; the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970; the Equal
Remuneration Act, 1976; and the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of
Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996. The enforcement of these laws is the
responsibility of both the central and state governments. At the central level, the key agency is the
office of the Chief Labour Commissioner and its field offices. However, the Directorate General of
Labour Welfare and the Welfare Commissioners also deal with certain welfare provisions emanating
from some of these enactments. In the states, the offices of the Labour Commissioners and their
field offices are responsible for enforcing these laws. Concerns of migrant labourers are also the
responsibility of the relevant Social Sector Ministries (Health and Family Welfare, Human
Resource Development, Food and Consumer Affairs, Urban Affairs, Social Justice). However, there
 6

are no separate departments in these ministries dealing exclusively with migrant labour. The
Ministry of Home Affairs has the responsibility for immigration.8 The Indian Penal Code has also
through Criminal Law Amendment Act of 2013 the offence of trafficking under Section 370 of the
Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, criminalises trafficking along the lines of Article 3 of
United Nations Trafficking Protocol but drops one of the means of trafficking, namely, the abuse of
power or of a position of vulnerability. The forms of exploitation under Section 370 also omit
reference to forced labour. Section 370A further criminalises anyone engaging a trafficked minor or
adult, but only for purposes of sexual exploitation, ignoring the use of trafficked persons in myriad
sectors of the Indian economy, including brick kilns, rice mills, farms, embroidery workshops,
mines, stone quarries, homes and carpet factories.

The Indian Constitution contains basic provisions relating to the conditions of employment, non-
discrimination, right to work etc. (e.g., Article 23(1)- Right against Exploitation, Article 39 (e)- that
the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are not abused
and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter a vocations unsuited to their age or
strength, Article 42 -Right to work, to education and to public assistance in certain cases, Article 43-
Living wage, etc., for workers). Parliament passed the Inter State Migrant Workmen (Regulation
and Conditions of Service) Act 1979 specifically to deal with malpractices associated with the
recruitment and employment of workers who migrate across state boundaries. The Act followed the
recommendations of a committee set up by the Labour Ministers Conference in 1976. The Act
covers only interstate migrants recruited through contractors or middlemen and those
establishments that employ five or more such workers on any given day. In Dr. Damodar Panda
Etc vs State Of Orissa Etc 9 it was held that to implement the provisions of the Act of 1979 referred
to above every State and Union Territory in India would be obliged to permit Officers of originating
States of migrant labour for holding appropriate inquiries within the limits of the Recipient States

8 Srivastava Ravi and S. K. Sasikumar. 2003. An Overview of Migration in India: Its Impacts
and Key Issues. Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on Migration, Development and
Pro-Poor Policy Choices in Asia, June 2224, 2003, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

9 Dr. Damodar Panda Etc vs State Of Orissa Etc, Writ Petition (Civil) No. 511 of 1975 & 1988
 7

for enforcement of the statute and no Recipient State shall place any embargo or hindrance in such
process.

The experiences of domestic workers migrated from Jharkhand and working in New Delhi10
1. Disoriented and miserably homesick- Navya, who was fifteen when she first went to Delhi,
could not communicate with others in the house as she did not know Hindi. She longed for
home food and was so home sick that she used to cry every evening. She was scolded by the
employer for this although she tried to do all the work she was given. She was also surprised
that houses looked the way they did. She had no idea about such things and wondered which
world she was living in. But since there were other girls like her in the neighbourhood, she
could sometimes speak to them when she went downstairs but that was not very often. Madam
woke her up before dawn to help in the kitchen. Then she cleaned the house and washed a big
pile of dishes. At the end of the day, she would just drop off to sleep. The relative that had
placed her there came to visit her once in a way but otherwise she had no contact with her
family for the entire year. At the end of the year, when she went home again, her parents
received a lump sum of money representing her wages from the relative who had placed her.
She recalls that her mother bought two goats with that money. After two months, she returned to
Delhi with her relative and worked in another home.
2. Vital role of NGOs- Saroj, who is now happily married with one child, retold her gruesome story
of how at the age of sixteen, she and her sister were taken to Delhi by a village boy (Philander),
with the consent of their parents. Philander had told their parents that he would take them to
their cousin in Delhi which he did not do. He actually placed them for work through another
placement agency and never met with them again. For two years, the parents of Seeta and Saroj
were not able to contact their daughters as Philander said they should ask the cousin. Finally the
parents were directed to Nirmala Niketan through other girls from the area. Nirmala Niketan
was able to confront Philander, contact the agency and trace Saroj in Janakpuri. They were able
to rescue her, get her wages that had not been paid for two years from the employer and send
her safely home. Saroj did not know where Seeta was and had no contact with her. The agency
also claimed it did not know. But Nirmala Niketan got the support of the police and forced the
10 Indispensable yet unprotected: Working conditions of Indian Domestic Workers at Home and Abroad /International
Labour Office, Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch (FUNDAMENTALS) Geneva:ILO, 2015. ISBN:
978-92-2-129839-7 (Print); 978-92-2-129840-3 (Web PDF)
 8

agent to bring the girl to the police station and hand her over to her father and pay her wages for
two years.

International Migration
In the economic realm, migrant labour has become a key feature in meeting economic, labour
market and productivity challenges in a globalized economy. Migration today serves as an
instrument to adjust the skills, age and sectoral composition of national and regional labour
markets. Migration provides responses to fast-changing needs for skills and personnel resulting
from technological advances, changes in market conditions and industrial transformations. In
countries of aging populations, migration offers a potential to replenish declining work forces as
well as to inject younger workers, potentially increasing dynamism, innovation and mobility in
work forces.

Movement of people across national boundaries in South Asia is long standing. Trade, political and
religious links have necessitated regular contacts with southeast, eastern and central Asia, and
Africa. However, with the advent of colonial rule, international migratory movement entered a new
phase. The imperial needs for labour required substantial migration of labour from India to the
plantation colonies in the West Indies, Ceylon, Southeast Asia, Mauritius, Fiji and South Africa. The
bulk of these migrants went as indentured labourers. Two distinct types of labour migration have
been taking place from India since independence:

People with technical skills and professional expertise migrate to countries such as the USA,
Canada, UK and Australia as permanent migrants (since the early 1950s).

Unskilled and semi-skilled workers migrate to oil exporting countries of the Middle East on
temporary contracts, especially following the oil price increases of 197374 and 1979.

During the 1950s and the 1960s, a significant proportion of those who migrated to the UK and, to
some extent, to Canada, were unskilled or semi-skilled. During the 1970s and the 1980s, however,
much emigration was made up of people with professional expertise, technical qualifications of
managerial talents and of white-collar workers who were also educated. Such skill composition
continued to dominate migration flows during the 1990s as well.
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The oil price increases of 197374 and 1979 led to enormous growth in the demand for foreign
labour in the oil exporting countries of the Gulf. In response, labourers from India began to migrate
in large numbers and the flow still continues. The scale of labour movements into the Gulf was
intimately linked to the escalation in oil revenues, the unprecedented rate of investment in domestic
industry and infrastructure of the oil states, and the shortage of domestic labour.

The experiences of domestic workers migrated from Kerala and working in Arabian Gulf 11
According to Zachariah and Rajan12 (2009), Kerala the state that sends the largest number of
workers from India. Despite Kerala being a state with high literacy rates, fourteen of the returned
migrants interviewed had received no formal education, eight had only a primary education and
three a secondary education. Levels of education were higher among potential migrants: only two of
them had received no formal education, fifteen a primary education, six had attended secondary
school and two had completed high school. The lack of vocational skills and work opportunities
force women into domestic work and their low levels of education influence the way women are
treated and deceived.

1. The family agent connection- Three women from Thiruvananthapuram went to Dubai with the
help of a relative, John, who worked in Kuwait. He sent these women to a local person who was
previously unknown to them. This person charged them INR 50,000 (USD 1,111) each to
arrange for their passports, tickets and visas. When they reached Dubai, they were received by
another unknown person who took them to a house, run by a Keralite woman, where there were
several other workers. The employers came there to select those they wished to recruit. The
agent translated the employers requirements to the migrants before they went to their place of
work. They learned that their salary of INR 5,000 (USD 111) per month (in 2006) would be paid
through the agent and that the first three months salary would go to John who had put them in
touch with the agent in Thiruvananthapuram. They were not informed of this in advance. They

11 Indispensable yet unprotected: Working conditions of Indian Domestic Workers at Home and Abroad /International
Labour Office, Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch (FUNDAMENTALS) Geneva:ILO, 2015. ISBN:
978-92-2-129839-7 (Print); 978-92-2-129840-3 (Web PDF)

12 Zachariah, K.C and Rajan, I. 2009. Migration and Development: The Kerala Experience, (New
Delhi,DanishBooks)
 10

were told that if the employer was dissatisfied with them, they would be brought back to this
agent.
2. The Kasargod Embassy- Jameela (age fifty), from Mallapuram, did not know about her rights
when she was placed for work abroad through an agent. She worked from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.,
cooking, cleaning and ironing for the family and their guests. If things were not done well, she
was rudely scolded. She was given only leftovers for food and could eat if and when she
managed to find the time. When she was sick and could not work, a weeks wages were
deducted. She was not allowed to talk to other workers in the house. There was an old man she
had to attend to giving medication on time and taking him to the toilet. He used to harass her.
One of the children was mentally challenged and used to throw things at her. A few times the
lady employer slapped Jameela when she was unsatisfied with Jameelas work. Jameela
tolerated this for a year, since she had paid a lot for her visa and needed to earn money for her
family needed to earn money for her family. Then she met another Keralite maid who had
accompanied a visitor to the house. She told her about a possible escape route. Then she met
another Keralite maid who had accompanied a visitor to the house. She told her about a possible
escape route through a place called the Kasargod embassy. Jameela called them and, after two
days, she picked up the courage to leave the house, call a taxi and go to the embassy. She was
taken in by a man and given place to stay. There were other women there too. She stayed there
for a week and was then taken to the airport and sent home with another passport.

3. Some Indian migrants who willingly seek employment in construction, domestic service, and
other low-skilled sectors in the Middle East and, to a lesser extent, other regions face forced
labour, often following recruitment fraud and exorbitant recruitment fees charged by labour
brokers.

Policy Implementation for International Migration13

India regulates external labour migration flows, for which the 1983 Emigration Act provides the
necessary legal framework. The office of the Protector of Emigrants, Ministry of Labour, is
empowered by law to regulate the deployment of Indian nationals seeking foreign employment. The

13 Srivastava Ravi and S. K. Sasikumar. 2003. An Overview of Migration in India: Its Impacts and
Key Issues.Paper prepared for the Regional Conference on Migration, Development and Pro-
Poor Policy Choices in Asia, June 2224, 2003, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
 11

main objective of state intervention is to ensure that nationals obtain legally valid employment
abroad under acceptable conditions. This is achieved mainly by setting minimum employment
standards and verifying employment contracts; regulating recruitment through licensing the agents;
issuing emigration clearances for certain categories of emigrants, especially those considered less
able to protect their own interests; and handling public grievances related to violation of
employment contracts and recruitment abuses. Two other ministries concerned with the emigration
of Indian workers are the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Ministry of Home Affairs. Indian
diplomatic missions abroad come under the MEA. They often have a labour attach posted to the
mission, responsible for monitoring and reporting on the conditions of Indian nationals and liaising
with host government authorities on matters such as employment conditions, welfare and
repatriation of migrant labour. The MEA also addresses issues related to international migration
during bilateral diplomatic negotiations, especially with major destination countries. The
Immigration Department under the Ministry of Home Affairs is responsible for the control of exit of
Indian nationals. The Police Department under the Ministry of Home Affairs is responsible for
investigating complaints lodged on recruitment abuses in India.

CAUSES FOR MIGRATION

1. The push: mostly declining opportunities in agriculture
- Situations of surplus labour arising from scarcity of cultivated land, inequitable land
distribution, low agricultural productivity, high population density and the concentration of the
rural economy almost exclusively on agriculture frequently lead to an increase in outmigration.
This combination of factors creates a push that is encountered more often in fragile
environments.
- Drought- Every summer Indias newspapers carry stories from all over the country of the
growing tide of people who have been driven out of their homes by drought. Bolangir14 is a
striking example. This is a very poor and drought-prone district in Orissa, where approximately
60,000 people migrated out during the 2001 drought. Nearly all the villages in the dry areas
stretching across eastern Maharashtra, eastern Karnatka and western Andhra Pradesh have very

14 Wandschneider, T., and P. Mishra 2003 The role of small rural towns in Bolangir District,
India: a village-level perspective, NRI Report No. 2750, DFID-World Bank Collaborative
Research Project on the Rural Non-Farm Economy and Livelihood Enhancement
 12

high rates of migration. Mahbubnagar district in Andhra Pradesh is known for the legendary
Palamur labourers who work in construction all over India. The situation in most of the
backward and dry areas of India (nearly two-thirds of the country) is increasingly resembling
this because of the low levels of diversification and deteriorating access to common property
resources.
2. Seasonal migration is often linked to debt cycles and the need of money for repaying
debts, covering deficits created by losses in agriculture, or meeting expenditures of large
magnitude on account of marriages, festivals, ceremonies etc. Given the diversity in the nature
of migration in India, the causes are also bound to vary. Migration is influenced both by the
pattern of development (NCRL, 1991), and the social structure15. The National Commission
on Rural Labour, focusing on seasonal migration, concluded that uneven development was the
main cause of seasonal migration. Along with inter regional disparity, disparity between
different socioeconomic classes and the development policy adopted since independence has
accelerated the process of seasonal migration. In tribal regions, intrusion of outsiders, the
pattern of settlement, displacement and deforestation, also have played a significant role
3. The pull: often new opportunities in urban-based industry and services. In the 1950s,
development economists viewed the demand for labour created by growing modern industrial
complexes and the gap in rural and urban wages as the main pull factor. Other pull factors
include the desire to acquire skills or gain new experiences. In the case of voluntary migration
of the poor for economic reasons, the wage gap is probably the most important pull and the
most important recent determinant of this appear to be urbanization and the spread of
manufacturing.
4. Recent pushes created by globalization- Growing economic interdependence of states is a
widely acknowledged component of globalization. Regarding the impact on migration, an ILO
study said, The evidence points to a likely worsening of migration pressures in many parts of
the world... Processes integral to globalization have intensified the disruptive effects of
modernization and capitalist development Many developing countries face serious social and

15 Mosse, D., Gupta, S., Mehta, M., Shah, V., Rees, J. and KRIBP Team (2002). Brokered
livelihoods: Debt, labour migration and development in tribal western India. Journal of
Development Studies, 38(5), pp. 5988.
 13

economic dislocation associated with persistent poverty, growing unemployment, loss of

traditional trading patterns, and what has been termed a growing crisis of economic security16.
Accelerated trade is replacing or undercutting domestic industrial and agricultural production
with cheap imports, but at the expense of many jobs in those sectors, in numerous developing
countries. Meanwhile, data indicates that job creation by private sector in many countries
affected by Structural Adjustment Programs has not matched the numbers rendered unemployed
by downsizing governments. As the ex-ILO Director General Juan Somavia puts it, if you look
at globalization from the point of view of peoples' concerns, its single biggest failure is its
inability to create jobs where people live. In sum, migration pressures on the supply side are
increasing as possibilities for employment and economic survival at home disappear. On the
other side, demand for migrant labour is anything but declining.

The most recent push factor appears to be a fall in agricultural commodity prices brought about by
macroeconomic reforms linked with liberalization and globalization policies. New evidence is
emerging from India of falling agricultural commodity prices due to macroeconomic reforms,
creating a strong push from the countryside. Recent research in Birbhum and Bardhaman17 districts
of West Bengal suggests that paddy producers are facing heavy losses as prices fell sharply by over
50 per cent since 1999. This situation was created by the reduction of subsidies as well as the de-
restriction of inter-state transport which has allowed cheaper paddy to come in from Bihar, as well
as from Jharkhand and Orissa where distress sales were occurring. But there are few other
academic studies in this area because it has emerged very recently.

IMPACT OF LABOUR MIGRATION ON WORKERS

Consequences of Internal Migration
1. Documentation and Identity- A birth certificate is the primary proof of citizenship in India,
and is the primary document that can be used to acquire other documentation, such as ration
16 Stalker P. 2000. Workers without Frontiers the Impact of Globalization on International
Migration. Geneva: ILO

17 Ghosh, P.K., and B. Harriss-White 2002 A crisis in the rice economy, Frontline, 19(19), 14-
27 September
 14

cards and election cards. Across India, the ration card is the de facto necessary proof of identity
that is essential for access to public services such as hospital care and education. The basic
problem of establishing identity results in a loss of access to entitlements and social services.
Lack of identification means migrants are not able to access provisions such as subsidized food,
fuel, health services, or education that are meant for the economically vulnerable sections of the
population. The issue of lack of access to education for children of migrants further aggravates
the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

2. Housing- Migration and slums are inextricably linked, as labour demand in cities and the
resulting rural-to-urban migration creates greater pressures to accommodate more people. Slum
dwellers who are migrants sometimes face the added challenge of establishing tenurethe right
to remain on a particular piece of urban land, and the right to compensation if the dwelling on
that land is seized by the government for redevelopment. However, many seasonal migrants are
not even able to make it to the slums. Unaffordable rents in slums force them to live at their
workplaces (such as construction sites and hotel dining rooms), shop pavements, or in open
areas in the city. This further perpetuates their vulnerability to harassment by the police and
other local authorities.
3. Limited Access to Formal Financial Services- In the absence of banking facilities, migrants
lack suitable options for safe-keeping of their money. In order to avoid the risk of theft, they are
forced to wait for long periods to settle their wages. Many migrant workers end up resorting to
informal channels to send money home. In the case of short-distance migration, workers end up
carrying money themselves which poses a potential threat of mugging or personal injury.
4. Political Exclusion- Migrant workers are often left unable to make political demands for
entitlements or seek reforms. In a state of continuous drift, migrant workers are deprived of
many opportunities to exercise their political rights. Because migrants are not entitled to vote
outside of their place of origin, some are simply unable to cast their votes. A 2011 study on the
political inclusion of seasonal migrant workers by Amrita Sharma18 and her co-authors found

18 Sharma, Amrita, S. Poonia, M. Babar, V. Singh, P. Singh, and L. K. Jha. 2011. Political
Inclusion of Migrant Workers: Perceptions, Realities and Challenges. Paper presented at
workshop on Political Inclusion of Migrant Workers and their Access to Basic Services,
Lucknow, India,March 1011, 2011.
 15

that 22 percent of seasonal migrant workers in India did not possess voter IDs or have their
names in the voter list. Historically, the Shiv Sena political party has been the anti-migrant voice
in Mumbais politics. In the late 1960s, the Sena demanded that jobs be reserved for locals and
was especially hostile to the Tamil migrant population that occupied middle-class jobs in
Mumbai in the 1970s. Pressure from the Shiv Sena led to concessions from the Congress party,
such as measures that gave preference to Maharashtrians for state government jobs.
5. Rampant Exploitation- Migrants, completely dependent on the middlemen for information,
end up working in low-end, low-value, hard, and risky manual labour and are constantly subject
to exploitation with little or no opportunity for legal recourse. Their work lives are characterized
by exploitative practices such as manipulation in wage rates and work records, non-payment or
withholding of wages, long work hours, abysmal work conditions, and verbal and physical
abuse. Female workers, especially in the domestic and construction sectors, are often sexually
exploited in return for the offer of regular work. Accidents and deaths at workplaces are also
extremely common in the construction sector, which is aggravated by the absence of any kind of
social protection.

Consequences of International migration

The social costs19 of labour migration in terms of fractured families and communities are
without a doubt at least as significant as those related to the more measurable economic costs. In
Kerala in India, there are around 1 million Gulf wives Often the children of migrant women
workers drop out of school or find themselves in vulnerable situations of neglect and abuse,
including incest. On their return, some women also face traumatic experiences, such as sexual
abuse, violence or family dislocation. More generally, countries that send a large proportion of
their population overseas find they create a culture of emigration in which becoming a
migrant is almost a rite of passage for young people.

Problems encountered by migrants

Problems encountered by the migrant workers may be examined at two levels. First in relation to
recruitment violations and the second in relation to working and living conditions in destination
countries. Commonly reported violations are delayed deployment or no deployment of workers,

19 Report VI, Towards a fair deal for migrant workers in the global economy, International
Labour Conference, 92nd Session, 2004. ISBN 92-2-113043-6, ISSN 0074-6681.
 16

overcharging or collection of fees far in excess of authorised placement fees and illegal
recruitment. Delayed deployments are often caused by factors beyond the control of the
recruitment agency, such as visa delays or when the employer requests a postponement. Non
deployment is however a serious case and the magnitude of its implications are amplified if an
excessive placement fee is collected from the worker. Overcharging is a serious offence and is
prevalent in all labour-sending countries in Asia. What makes overcharging doubly serious is that
the workers end up paying huge amounts equivalent to many months salary20. Minimising, if not
totally eliminating, overcharging poses a serious challenge to overseas employment
administrators. Illegal recruitment is another serious violation of the rules as workers get
recruited and deployed overseas without the government knowing about them. Being unlicensed,
illegal recruiters are beyond the reach of the normal regulatory machinery of the national
overseas employment policy. They are and should be the concern of police and other enforcement
agencies. Some major problems encountered by the migrants in their countries of employment
include: a) premature termination of job contracts, b) changing the clauses of contract to the
disadvantage of the workers, c) delay in payment of salary, d) violation of minimum wage
standards, e) freezing of fringe benefits and other perks, f) forced over-time work without returns
and g) denial of permission to keep ones own passport. Migrant labourers seldom lodge any
complaint against the erring employers for the fear of losing their jobs. In cases where migrant
workers decide to complain against the erring employer, they have two options. First, the
employee may inform the home embassy in the country of employment. This is mainly done by
people lacking the means to return home. Embassy officials sometimes seek the help and
assistance of the local government to take actions against the erring employers.
ANOMALIES IN THE EMIGRATION ACT AND PROCEDURES
While the GOI has realized that the institutional framework created by the Emigration Act is not as
effective as it should be and that it lacks coherent legal, administrative and policy structures
necessary to implement it, there is little or no acknowledgement that the existing framework
discriminates against low-skilled emigrants from the country in general and low-skilled women
migrants in particular. The Act divides citizens into two categories according to their educational

20 Sasikumar, S.K. and Raju, S. (2000). Dynamics of Labour Market in Kerala. NLI Research
Studies Series No.2. Noida, India: V.V.Giri National Labour Institute.
 17

qualifications: low-skilled migrants whose passports are marked Emigration Clearance Required
(ECR) and others who do not require such clearance (ECNR Emigration Clearance not required).
Ostensibly, this is done in order to protect less educated migrants. However, it does not offer
sufficient protection to low-skilled emigrants from the country, particularly women. In fact, it
prohibits the movement of specific categories of women especially single, uneducated, domestic
workers below the age of thirty. It is this discriminatory state intervention that has served to produce
and sustain a form of controlled informality in the emigration process, a regulatory impasse that
promotes the use of informal, largely unauthorized agents and procedures and indirect routes of
acquiring clearance. This takes the form of a shadow institutional space and a powerful parallel
economy with an extensive network across India and the Middle East that serves to replicate the
functions of the State. Unauthorized agents not only organize emigration clearance, in the case of
applicants who may not have the required qualifications, but, in association with State officials at
airports, also manage pushing i.e., sending women workers through without the requisite
clearance.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR WELFARE OF

MIGRANT WORKERS
1. The Emigration Act 1983 which is primarily regulatory in nature, should be amended to provide
the much needed legislative basis for the promotional and welfare considerations related to
migration in general. The State Governments should be taken on board to facilitate the Central
Governments efforts to make emigration procedures transparent and effective. Their role in
taking timely action in tackling the issues faced by migrants locally should also be clearly
defined.21
2. India is a founder member of the ILO. India has ratified 37 of the 181 conventions. The
constitution of India upholds all the fundamental principles envisaged in the seven core
international labour standards. Out of the seven core labour conventions, India has ratified three,
they are (i) forced labour No.29, equal remuneration No.100. and discrimination No.111.The
government of India has ratified some conventions such as hours of work industry convention
21 Indispensable yet unprotected: Working conditions of Indian Domestic Workers at Home and Abroad /International
Labour Office, Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch (FUNDAMENTALS) Geneva:ILO, 2015.
ISBN: 978-92-2-129839-7 (Print); 978-92-2-129840-3 (Web PDF)
 18

1919,night work (women) convention 1919 ,minimum age convention 1919 ,Right to
Association (Agricultural workers ),workmens compensation,
1925,EqualRemunerationconvention1951.,However, freedom of association and Right to
collective bargaining (convention No.87 and 98 ) both conventions and also International
Convention on Protection of Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families are
not ratified by India due to technical difficulties involving trade union rights for civil servants.
Freedom of Association is guaranteed as a fundamental right in the Indian constitution, Trade
Union Act 1926 meets with part of the objectives of the convention. India should ratify them.
3. Developing migration information systems-
One of the areas requiring immediate policy intervention is the creation of an appropriate
information system on international emigration. This would enable closer surveillance and
better management of emigration. The status of out-migrant data can be improved by making
the registration of entry by migrant workers mandatory in the Indian missions operating in
labour receiving countries. The nature of outflow data at home can be strengthened by a fuller
utilisation of the data already available with government departments and recruitment agencies.
A chief requirement in this connection would be the strengthening of the statistical wings of the
concerned government departments.

4. Utilising resource flows and human capital of emigrants to strengthen development: There
is an absence of any policy framework regarding the effective utilisation of financial inflows
from emigrants to strengthen the development process at national or state levels. Similarly, the
existing policy regime in India hardly addresses any concerns related to the migration of
persons with technical or professional expertise, many of whom are willing to make a
contribution to the development process, either in their non-resident status or as returnees.
These issues need close consideration at national and regional levels and effective policies need
to be formulated which can integrate development concerns with the migration process.
5. It should be noted that the principle of equal pay for equal work is not also strictly adhered to
the fixation of wage rates for contract basis male and female seasonal migrant workers as per
the Equal Remuneration Act of 1976.Most of the migrant workers are illiterate, ignorant and
belong to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and others socially, economically, weaker sections
of the society. The Disadvantaged Groups of the Society, Handicapped people, who cannot earn
 19

a decent living as other normal people.22 (Mishra, 2001). Bremen23 shows that recruitment for
work in brick kilns, stone quarries or salt pane takes place in the off season, when workers are
offered an advance payment for making their labour power available later on. This is most
clearly demonstrated in the case of seasonal migration.
6. Welfare funds: Although the issue of welfare of families of workers left behind in the home
country has come to be recognised as potentially important, there are hardly any policies in this
area. It may be worthwhile to consider the constitution of a Welfare Fund for Indian workers
abroad. Such a fund can be utilised for a wide range of welfare measures concerned with both
the migrant workers and their families. The Welfare Fund could also be of vital importance to
women employees in the Gulf who are largely in the category of area-medical staff and
domestic servants. The Gulf crisis of 1990 had brought to light the adverse conditions that
women employees, especially the domestic servants category had to face, while their employers
fled to safety. The Fund could mainly comprise of the contributions received from Indians
working in the Middle East. Incentives such as attractive insurance schemes and tax relief
should be offered to the migrants contributing towards the Fund.
7. Improvement in the economic, social and political environment in favour of migration
Disadvantages faced by poor migrants are accentuated because of their low political voice in
source and destination areas; because they often comprise a distinct ethnic, social or cultural
group, and are seen to be threatening to the livelihoods of workers in the destination areas. As a
consequence, they can be victims of strong prejudices. There is, thus a role for advocacy to
remove stereotypes and misapprehensions and for a campaign to buttress the voices of poor
migrants.

CONCLUSION
Today, in the context of globalization accompanied by a rise in inequalities in distribution of wealth
and exclusion of entire populations from economic and social well-being, greater emphasis is needed
on advancing rights-based approaches. These are fundamental to ensuring the primacy of the rule of
22 Mishra Lakshmidhar (2001), Can Globalization and Labour Rights co-exist? The Indian
Journal of Labour Economics , Vol.44 No.1 January -March.

23 Breman, J. (1996). Footloose Labour: Working in Indias Informal Sector. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.
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law, extension and consolidation of democracy, and greater equity in the distribution of material
means for well-being and social cohesion. Migration is a central arena for expression of values in law,
policy and practice. Advancing a rights-based framework for protection of migrants and regulation of
migration is thus imperative. This requires advocacy and action in promotion of human rights law, of
international labour standards, of humanitarian principles and of respect for diversity. These are the
guarantors of democracy and social peace. A primary step is obtaining States' adherence to relevant
international human rights standards, particularly the two ILO migrant worker Conventions and the
1990 International Convention on migrants rights. Complementary steps are to address labour market
needs, ensure decent work opportunities for all, combat discrimination and promote integration.
Promotion of the rule of law and respect for diversity are shared responsibilities among all
stakeholders: government, employers, trade unions, civil society and migrants themselves. Social
partners in concert with migrant associations have key moral and political leadership roles to play
in mobilizing societies and governments to ensure implementation of a rights-based framework for
international migration. Progress is encouraging, but the challenges remain huge.