IMN Situation Update №1

Dear readers,

The past month has been unprecedentedly nightmarish for migrant workers and their households all over India and abroad. As the level of distress spread with the extension of the lockdown, all the fault lines in our welfare system and labour markets have been exacerbated and laid bare. Overnight critical migrant corridors became ground zero for relief efforts. What started off as a global pandemic also became a major humanitarian crisis.

At IMN, we found ourselves in unfamiliar territory. Research projects and pilots were put on hold. Questionnaires about up-skilling and investment habits were retooled into rapid need assessments about hunger status and emergency cash reserves. Our nascent and obscure Whatsapp group, Migration Matters became a relief coordination board for 50+ organisations all over India. Every field partner, labour contractor and employer became a potential node for identifying and delivering relief packages.

Millions of workers have been excluded or inadequately assisted. While critical failures in our welfare delivery systems, poorly designed public policies and the inequities of our urban economies were the major drivers of this tragedy, capacity and coordination issues severely constrained the relief and needs assessment efforts of NGOs, CSR initiatives and social enterprises.

As the lockdown continues and people start to return home, the nature and scale of the interventions needed will rapidly evolve. Research, social initiatives and welfare delivery are going to be essential as the economy reels from the lockdowns.

In order to grapple with these issues and foster greater coordination and learning, we have initiated discussion sessions between the different stakeholders in the migration space. The outcomes of these sessions will be put out on our blog in the form of situational updates.

This is part of a range of IMN initiatives to ensure that migration remains an opportunity for India both during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Best,

Varun

(Founder, IMN)

Participants

Dr. Divya Ravindranath (Indian Institute of Human Settlements, Bangalore)

Dr. Imran Khan (Narsi Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai)

Lubaina Plumber (Aajeevika Bureau, Mumbai)

Situation Update/Urgent updates

Central Government announces that migrant workers and students will now be allowed to return to their home states by road. Read the order here.

Himachal Pradesh and J&K were able to transfer workers from HP to J&K because the two had actors coordinating with each other.

When sending people back to the source state, labourers should be prioritised: The process followed by Himachal Pradesh was —

> Health checkups — permissions — transport — checkups at entry points — home quarantine.

Telangana to Jharkhand fast train services to transport 1200 workers from Telangana to Jharkhand.

Lessons for NGOs

For providing help to communities, one can look at community leaders, who have sufficient influence and can help in delivering essentials, like rations. For instance, among naka workers it can be leaders who are already parts of unions. They can provide consolidated information on the needs of workers.

Coordination required with vendors to make sure that the ration needs are attended to.

Cash transfers can be done after verification of workers’ accounts through Aadhaar card. But the process remains unclear for those without Aadhaar.

A live demand sheet can be maintained to enter the workers contacted to prevent repetition and overlapping of efforts. Follow-ups to the demands/requests will be done on the sheet.

Local corporators have individual funds and know the dynamics of a place, but providing through corporators alone will not make sure that the needs reach the most vulnerable, since migrants will be overlooked.

Lessons for researchers

While conducting surveys to gauge the current situation, a simultaneous documentation of needs of different workers can be done — tying up documentation work with research.

Having a good estimate of needs of workers in the first rounds of surveys, and conducting a vulnerability mapping based on the inputs by respondents. The second-round will additionally be a follow-up. This will reduce the effort of tracking vulnerable groups from the beginning.

Initiatives and Action Plans

A central database for all organisations which will have information about their reach and workers covered so that overlapping or duplication of efforts does not happen.

Tracking the delivery of relief material to prevent mismatch between assistance seekers and providers.

Destination level creche services like ICDS Anganwadi schemes and CSOs like Mumbai Mobile Crèches to be a means for taking care of nutritional requirements of children, pregnant women and infants, as malnourishment rates will witness a spike.

Key Takeaways and Follow-ups

The onus of taking workers back to their respective states has been shifted to the State governments, which are presently arranging bus services for stranded migrants. This initiative is highly inadequate for interstate migrants who live at a considerable distance from their source states. Non-stop train services by the Central Government will hasten the transportation help needed by stranded migrants.

Documentation is of utmost importance — the crisis is different everywhere and for different categories of migrants. There should be an understanding about the extent of the crisis and its effects on different kinds of migrants. The situation is not homogeneous, therefore, there are different permutations of channels that can work in providing relief. In some cases, one has to coordinate with administrative authorities as well, like police, health department, and the state government.

No intervention by the state for domestic workers.

Savings of households are likely to perish at the end of two months, will need immediate coordination of efforts from all organisations.

IMN along with Dvara Trust has developed an app called E-Sahayak. This app matches assistance providers with assistance seekers, for ration needs, cash-in cash-out needs, medical aid, etc. If you are an assistance provider or know someone who needs assistance, please add their details on the app.

You can download the E Sahayak App by clicking here.

If you liked this blog and wish to support our work with migrants and their households, do consider donating through the box below.