Classes from Covid: Jharkhand’s first survey of migrants

Starting this month, over 60 enumerators have fanned out throughout 24 districts of the state, knocking on the doorways of 11,000 households, to conduct the primary Jharkhand Migrant Survey (JMS).

Officials and researchers informed The Indian Express that the purpose is to map the most important sectors of engagement for migrant employees, discover the social safety advantages obtainable to their households and determine the well being hazards they face.

The initiative is a part of the state’s Safe and Responsible Migration Initiative (SRMI), which was launched in 2021-end and consists of the preparation of a database of migrant employees.

“Through JMS we would like to bring out the first ever state-level estimates of migration and conditions, and factors influencing migration. The evidence is expected to be used to draft a state-level policy framework on migration and welfare of migrant workers in Jharkhand in the upcoming fiscal year 2023-24,” Arindam Banerjee, founding companion at Policy and Development Advisory Group (PDAG), mentioned.

PDAG is a part of a consortium that signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state authorities in October 2021 to design, construct and implement the SRMI, together with organising a technical help unit for “evidence-based informed policy making”, mentioned officers within the state’s Labour division.

One of the important thing goals listed within the MoU is to “integrate findings from the field survey to help design appropriate state policies to address welfare issues of migrant workers in the state”.

Kunal Singh, Research Lead at PDAG, mentioned the enumerators can even undertake a “qualitative assessment”, chatting with group leaders and authorities representatives, “to check last-mile service delivery and understand how safe migration is being facilitated”.

“In terms of the nature of questions, we have divided them into several blocks, such as knowing household characteristics, understanding the outgoing and incoming of migrants or both, and understanding the push and pull factors, and their quality of life. Then, we are trying to know the remittance savings or its utilisation and the engagement of women within the house or their opinion on the nature of work sought,” Singh mentioned.

According to official information, tribal communities type almost 27 per cent of Jharkhand’s inhabitants. Officials mentioned this phase is “affected by low human development indicators” and varieties a major chunk of the “huge outflow of the working age population”.

“The return of migrant workers to the state during the first Covid wave laid bare deeper policy challenges of social welfare, food security, livelihood and health management. Jharkhand also acts as a major source state of migration to far-flung regions like Ladakh, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh as well as Andaman & Nicobar Islands,” a Labour division official informed The Indian Express.

Jharkhand shouldn’t be the one state to conduct migrant labour surveys. Kerala has been a pioneer on this area, with a number of such surveys, adopted by states like Tamil Nadu and Punjab. “But there is a basic difference in labour movement between Kerala and Jharkhand. In Kerala, workers mostly go abroad, mainly to Gulf countries. In Jharkhand, the issue is internal migration,” one other official mentioned.

Official sources mentioned the continued stand-off with the Border Roads Organisation, over the welfare and security of migrant employees from the state employed in BRO initiatives, was another excuse that pushed the federal government to border a coverage. “The survey has started in that direction,” an official mentioned.