Survey Shows Migrant Workers On Brink Of Starvation In Delhi

by Anjali Ojha 3 years ago Views 2004

Survey Shows Migrant Workers On Brink Of Starvatio
As lakhs of migrant workers are stranded in cities, a survey by trade union body Centre of Indian Trade Unions, CITU shows a majority of migrant workers in the National Capital Region have an income less than Rs15, 000 a month and a majority of this income is sent home. Less than a third of these migrants had job security in terms of getting a monthly retainer.

CITU, which has been arranging ration for migrant workers, conducted the survey on phone with 506 group leaders among migrant workers, representing around 8,870 workers in NCR.


It was found that many of these workers did not have ration cards and many did not even have AADHAR cards. They did not even have money to recharge their mobile phones.  The survey found that 65 per cent of the respondents had not received any form of government food support, either in the form of dry rations or cooked meals. And of the 176 respondents who received food support from the government, 120 reported that the amount was inadequate.

Six per cent of the total respondents did not have either a ration card or an AADHAR card, almost one fourth (22.5 percent) did not have a bank account. It was further found that 3.5 percent of the respondents didn’t have a ration card, AADHAR card or a bank account.

The volunteers who conducted the survey, a majority of them students, reported that these workers suffered acute anxiety. Among their chief worries were: when they could return home, lack of income which has pushed them to the brink of starvation and uncertainty over finding a job post lockdown. Even as the government announced landlords should not collect rent, the pressure of paying rent from landlords continues.

Among the workers, 44 percent were from West Bengal, and 32 percent were from Bihar.

More than half the respondent, which is 58.5 per cent, are currently residing in neighbourhoods of East Delhi. These high stress localities include Gandhi Nagar, Ajeet Nagar, Old Seelampur, Raghubarpura and Shakarpur. Calls were also received for relief from Gurugram, Ghaziabad and Noida.

A majority are casual workers, which means they have no job security. Only 28 percent workers had monthly paid jobs. About 35 percent worked on piece-rated contracts and 23 percent were daily wage workers.

This means that for 58 percent of workers there is no guarantee of the number of days of employment, and thus no guarantee of regular income.

While scenes of migrant workers walking back home has haunted the nation, the survey reveals lack of regular income, high amount of remittance being sent back home, and lack of any savings has led to a desperation among these workers to return home.

About 13 percent respondents were self-employed, with fluctuating incomes.

Around 39 percent of respondents were working as tailors. This included those who are self-employed, as well as home-based workers. Within the general trade of garment workers, a large number of these workers are embroiderers. Casual manual workers constituted about 16 percent of all respondents. Technicians and skilled workers constituted seven percent, factory workers (apart from tailors in garment factories) constituted about eight per cent of respondents and another seven percent were street vendors or self-employed persons who did manual work.

When it comes to their earnings, four percent of respondents had a monthly income of less than Rs 5,000, 52 percent of the respondents earned between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 per month. Another 35 percent had incomes between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000.

Despite poor earnings, leaving barely enough to survive in the city, migrants also carry the burden of sending money back home. Yet, as many as 27 percent were too poor to do that.

Most of the others sent a significant part of their incomes to their dependents in their villages. On average, respondents sent about a third of their incomes – in most cases, between Rs 2,000-Rs 8,000 per month -- to their dependents in the village.

Asked about the availability of rations, 29 percent of the respondents did not have any rice, 51 percent had no flour, 52 percent had no pulses and 54 percent had no cooking oil.

“For the others, we calculated the average per head (on the total stranded population) availability of these food items, which turned out to be an abysmal quantity. This signifies the near starvation levels of a majority of workers and their families,” the survey stated.

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