Cargando…

Inclusion of Interstate Migrant Workers in Kerala and Lessons for India

An estimated 3.5 million interstate migrant workers have become an indispensable part of Kerala’s economy. The state also offers the highest wages for migrant workers for jobs in the unorganised sector in the entire Indian subcontinent. Further, the state has evolved several measures for the inclusi...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Peter, Benoy, Sanghvi, Shachi, Narendran, Vishnu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer India 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7659401/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33204053
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41027-020-00292-9
_version_ 1783608818058395648
author Peter, Benoy
Sanghvi, Shachi
Narendran, Vishnu
author_facet Peter, Benoy
Sanghvi, Shachi
Narendran, Vishnu
author_sort Peter, Benoy
collection PubMed
description An estimated 3.5 million interstate migrant workers have become an indispensable part of Kerala’s economy. The state also offers the highest wages for migrant workers for jobs in the unorganised sector in the entire Indian subcontinent. Further, the state has evolved several measures for the inclusion of the workers and was able to effectively respond to their distress during the national lockdown. This paper examines labour migration to Kerala, key measures by the government to promote the social security of the workers and the state’s response to the distress of migrant workers during lockdown, by synthesising the available secondary evidence. The welfare measures as well as interventions initiated by the state are exemplary and promising given the intent and provisions. However, some of them do not appear to have consideration of the grassroots requirements and implementation mechanisms to enhance access. As a result, the policy intent and substantial investments have not yielded the expected results. The state’s effective response to the distress of workers during the lockdown emanates from its overall disaster preparedness and resilience achieved from confronting with two consecutive state-wide natural disasters and a public health emergency in the immediate past. While the government has played a strategic role through policy imperative and ensuring a synergistic response, the data presented by the state indicate a much larger but invisible role played by the employers and civil society in providing food and shelter to workers.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7659401
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Springer India
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-76594012020-11-13 Inclusion of Interstate Migrant Workers in Kerala and Lessons for India Peter, Benoy Sanghvi, Shachi Narendran, Vishnu Indian J Labour Econ Article An estimated 3.5 million interstate migrant workers have become an indispensable part of Kerala’s economy. The state also offers the highest wages for migrant workers for jobs in the unorganised sector in the entire Indian subcontinent. Further, the state has evolved several measures for the inclusion of the workers and was able to effectively respond to their distress during the national lockdown. This paper examines labour migration to Kerala, key measures by the government to promote the social security of the workers and the state’s response to the distress of migrant workers during lockdown, by synthesising the available secondary evidence. The welfare measures as well as interventions initiated by the state are exemplary and promising given the intent and provisions. However, some of them do not appear to have consideration of the grassroots requirements and implementation mechanisms to enhance access. As a result, the policy intent and substantial investments have not yielded the expected results. The state’s effective response to the distress of workers during the lockdown emanates from its overall disaster preparedness and resilience achieved from confronting with two consecutive state-wide natural disasters and a public health emergency in the immediate past. While the government has played a strategic role through policy imperative and ensuring a synergistic response, the data presented by the state indicate a much larger but invisible role played by the employers and civil society in providing food and shelter to workers. Springer India 2020-11-12 2020 /pmc/articles/PMC7659401/ /pubmed/33204053 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41027-020-00292-9 Text en © Indian Society of Labour Economics 2020 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Article
Peter, Benoy
Sanghvi, Shachi
Narendran, Vishnu
Inclusion of Interstate Migrant Workers in Kerala and Lessons for India
title Inclusion of Interstate Migrant Workers in Kerala and Lessons for India
title_full Inclusion of Interstate Migrant Workers in Kerala and Lessons for India
title_fullStr Inclusion of Interstate Migrant Workers in Kerala and Lessons for India
title_full_unstemmed Inclusion of Interstate Migrant Workers in Kerala and Lessons for India
title_short Inclusion of Interstate Migrant Workers in Kerala and Lessons for India
title_sort inclusion of interstate migrant workers in kerala and lessons for india
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7659401/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33204053
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41027-020-00292-9
work_keys_str_mv AT peterbenoy inclusionofinterstatemigrantworkersinkeralaandlessonsforindia
AT sanghvishachi inclusionofinterstatemigrantworkersinkeralaandlessonsforindia
AT narendranvishnu inclusionofinterstatemigrantworkersinkeralaandlessonsforindia