Deciphering the Data of the MP Migrant Report
Sudden lockdown during the first wave of COVID-19 brought to fore the disturbing accounts of the migrant labourers, who journeyed on foot to reach their homes at far off places. The pandemic had effectively shut their work-spaces, leading to indiscriminate and widespread loss of livelihoods. However, since then, the time had flown past: the second wave of the disease was overcome by the country and there is an availability of vaccines. Amidst this, it almost seemed like the voices of these people were attaining obscurity when the Madhya Pradesh Migrant Volunteer Team in collaboration with the Zenith Society for Socio-Legal Empowerment prepared a Report capturing data on the plights of the migrant labourer. This report is titled, “The Indian Catastrophe: MP Migrants' Crisis Amidst Covid-19” and is made possible through an empirical study (via questionnaires) of about 2943 migrant workers spread across 52 districts of Madhya Pradesh.
Justice Hub is hosting a ‘Date with Data’ episode with the authors of this Report tomorrow at 4:00 pm (to register click here). Here’s a quick summary of what the Report brings to light:
Demography: While 92% of the respondent migrant workers are male, the remaining 8% includes the female population. Of this, 34% belong to the general category, 31% are Other Backward Classes (OBC), 15% are Schedule Caste (SC) and 15% Scheduled Tribes (ST). A major portion of these workers (83%) are within the age group of 15-34 years.
Employment Rate: More than 56% of the labourers who have returned to their homes are without jobs, and suffering through a low employment rate, especially those belonging to Scheduled Tribes and the female population.
Engagement shift towards labour industry: It was seen that in contrast to the pre-covid era, an engagement shift towards the low-paying labour sector has been seen amongst the respondents (who had higher-paying jobs in infrastructure development before the pandemic).
Income and Pay Gap: Besides lowering the average income of the labourers, the pandemic further extended the gender-dictated pay gap amongst the workers. The report states that, “the proportion of female respondents for the below-average income groups is significantly higher (around 66%) as compared to their male counterparts (around 40%).” It also says that, “With an increase in the income levels, the proportion of female respondents for the above-average income groups decreases drastically as compared to their male counterparts for those groups.” This shows that there exists gender disparity in terms of incomes earned by males and females.
Failure of Government Policies and Legislation: Poor administration of the lockdown, lack of transportation facility for the migrant workers to reach their home states, absence of proper quarantine facilities, defective allocation of government schemes and funds, inadequate implementation of court directives and schemes only increased the hardships of the labourers. An example of such would be the Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme of the MP government. Under this scheme, each returning migrant worker was to receive Rs. 1000 as financial aid. However, according to the report, “this initiative remained largely unimplemented with 88.5% of the respondents stating that no such amount was ever transferred to them. Amongst the 11.5% who did receive DBT, many mentioned not receiving the full amount.”
The authors of the report have stitched together heart-rending third-person accounts of real stories and actual experiences towards the end of the report giving the readers a glimpse into the reality of hardships faced by the migrant labourers. Regarding the Report’s objective, the authors say that “Besides aiming to make us aware of the ground realities, the findings of this report are important as they hold the potential to guide policy decisions and legislation concerning migrant workers. A 360- degree analysis of the current approach will help us identify the strengths and weaknesses of the existing system and help us be better equipped to deal with such situations in the future.”
To read the full report visit: MP Migrant Report 2021
To know more attend our Date with Data session with the authors of the Report tomorrow: Register here.