Migration of Labour - A View after Corona

Abstract

The world is witnessing an unprecedented disaster because of Covid-19, which has brought all humans imprisoned in their house and all industrial activities to a halt. The shutdown of the Industrial activities is unprecedented. The case in India is not much different as most of the industrial activities have come to a halt. The prolonged lockdowns, beginning March 25, led a reverse migration with workers leaving cities and going back to their home states or districts or villages. The industries activities were shut down and their wages were struck with the employers. So, it was a big challenge for them of paying house rent and taking care of their basic needs, apart from health concerns. A number of migrant workers who fled the big cities may possibly never return, preferring to eke out a living on their marginal farms or find work in nearby towns.  Before the arrival of Britishers India was predominantly a confined agricultural economy. Village was the smallest self-sufficient unit in fulfilling the needs of the people. The rough British policies had started migration from rural to semi-urban and semi-urban to cities areas. After the Independence the rural to urban migration in the wake of fast growth of the industry in the country became widespread. There are many reasons for urban to rural migration that includes- tendency to look for jobs, improved transportation, urban oriented education, modernization, impact of vast malls and entertainment facilities. A large number of rural people have been forced to migrate to urban areas because of shortage of livelihood in rural areas and shortage of agricultural and related occupations. Poverty, lack of local options and the non- availability of work in elsewhere become the trigger and the pull for rural migration. In an unorganized and chaotic labour market, migrant workers regularly face struggles and disputes at worksites. We cannot conclude that migration is a bad phenomenon, but we have seen that during the disaster, the migrate labourers are most suffer. They lost their jobs and the question of their livelihood stand in front of them. In fact, migrants play a vital role in the development of Metro and big cities and industrialisation of our country depends on these workers. We have to sort out the problems of migrants labourer, so that in coming years, they have not to leave their work place in disaster like Corona.