MIGRANT WORKERS IN INDIA: LIVING STANDARDS, INFORMALITY, AND SOCIAL PROTECTION MEASURES

Why In News?

The release of the South India Interstate Migration Survey 2026 has brought renewed policy focus to internal labor mobility in India.

What is South India Interstate Migration Survey (SIIMS) 2026?

The study, conducted by the International Institute for Migration and Development (IIMAD) in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), surveyed 1,824 migrant workers across 33 districts in the three states.

Findings of the Survey 

72% Reported Improved Living Standards: Nearly three out of four interstate migrant workers surveyed across southern destination states (such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana) reported a net enhancement in their household living standards compared to their source states.

More than Half Want to Remain in Destination States: Over 50% of surveyed migrant workers expressed a preference to settle long-term or permanently in their destination states due to higher wage rates and consistent availability of work.

Only 19.4% Reported Easy Welfare Access: Less than a fifth of the migrant workforce could easily access local government welfare schemes, subsidized food grains, or social security safety nets.

69.2% Faced Healthcare Access Difficulties: More than two-thirds struggled to obtain public healthcare services in destination states due to lack of local address documentation, language barriers, and fragmented inter-state identity linkages.

86.4% Had No Written Employment Contract: Demonstrates pervasive labor informality, leaving workers vulnerable to arbitrary dismissal, wage theft, and total denial of statutory retrenchment compensation.

57.6% Received Wages in Cash: More than half of the workforce received compensation outside formal digital banking channels, circumventing minimum wage enforcement and preventing official audit trails.

Gender Wage Gap Among Migrant Workers: Female migrant workers faced systemic wage discrimination, earning significantly lower daily compensation than male counterparts for identical work hours across construction, brick kilns, and agrarian sectors.

Why Do Workers Migrate?

Better Employment Opportunities: Dense industrial corridors, export manufacturing zones, and dynamic urban labor markets in southern states offer consistent year-round employment.

Higher Wages: Significant wage differentials, with daily minimum and market wages in southern states (particularly Kerala and Tamil Nadu) frequently standing 1.5 to 2.5 times higher than in source regions such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Odisha.

Industrial Jobs: High labor absorption in textile manufacturing, leather tanning, automobile assembly, and small-scale engineering units.

Construction Employment: Rapid real estate and urban infrastructure development creates continuous demand for manual, semi-skilled, and skilled labor.

Service-Sector Employment: Expanding demand across hospitality, retail, domestic work, security services, and logistics gig networks.

Limited Local Opportunities: Low agricultural productivity, high land fragmentation, chronic rural underemployment, and recurring climate distress (droughts and floods) push rural youth away from source states.

What are the Major Challenges Faced by Migrant Workers?

Lack of Written Contracts: Preponderance of unwritten, informal arrangements through labor contractors (sardars/thekedars) deprives workers of legal standing under labor tribunals.

Limited Social Security: Deprived of statutory provident fund (EPFO), employees' state insurance (ESIC), gratuity, and paid leave.

Healthcare Access Barriers: High out-of-pocket medical expenditure in private clinics because local primary health centres require regional documentation and local language proficiency.

Portability of Welfare Benefits: Entitlements under state-specific welfare boards (e.g., Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Boards - BOCW) do not transfer seamlessly across state borders.

Cash Wage Payments: Widespread off-the-books cash transactions prevent enforcement of statutory minimum wages and eliminate evidence needed to pursue wage-theft grievances.

Inadequate and Unsafe Housing: Migrants often inhabit squalid, overcrowded tenements, makeshift roadside shacks, or worksite dormitories devoid of clean drinking water, drainage, and basic sanitation.

Workplace Vulnerability & Occupational Hazards: Absence of safety gear in hazardous occupations (mining, scaffolding, chemical handling) results in high rates of uncompensated workplace injuries and fatalities.

Gender Wage Inequality: Female migrants endure unequal pay, lack of maternity support, absence of worksite crèches, and heightened risks of harassment.

What are the Governance/Policy Issues?

Inter-State Welfare Portability: State-specific social security budgets and administrative silos impede interstate portability of subsidized health insurance and pensions.

One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC): While the biometric Aadhaar-enabled public distribution system allows inter-state grain collection, operational friction (biometric failures, ePoS connectivity errors, and lack of quota awareness) persists.

e-Shram Database Under-Utilization: Although over 30 crore unorganized workers have registered on the centralized e-Shram portal, the database functions primarily as a digital directory rather than an automatic vehicle for welfare delivery. 

Implementation Delays of Labour Codes: The Code on Social Security, 2020 and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) Code, 2020 remain pending complete pan-India operationalization due to delays in state-level rule notification.

Weak Interstate Coordination: Ineffective implementation of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, with low registration rates among principal employers and inter-state contractors.

Social Security Coverage Gaps: Lack of a dedicated universal fund dedicated to cross-state informal migrant workers.

Way Forward

Ensure Universal Portable Social Security: Institutionalize universal portability of healthcare and pensions by linking e-Shram credentials directly with the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).

• Example: Inter-State Migrant Worker Welfare Scheme (AWAZ) in Kerala, providing subsidized healthcare and insurance coverage to external migrant laborers (Athidhi Thozhilalikal).

Mandate Written Employment Contracts & Digital Wages: Enforce provisions of the OSH Code mandating written appointment letters and digital direct-benefit wage transfers to ensure legal standing and curb wage theft.

• Example: BOCW Welfare Fund Digital Direct Transfer Model, disallowing cash wage payments on public and registered commercial construction sites

Strengthen Labor Inspections & Helpdesks: Modernize state labor directorates by establishing multilingual migrant facilitation kiosks at railway hubs and industrial clusters.

• Example: Bandhu Migrant Worker Helpdesks, operationalized across select transit railway nodes to assist inter-state laborers with dispute redressal and welfare linkages.

Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHCs): Fast-track the construction of low-cost rental dormitories near industrial estates under the PM Awas Yojana (PMAY-U).

• Example: PMAY-U Affordable Rental Housing Complexes Sub-Scheme, repurposing government-funded vacant housing blocks for urban migrant labor accommodation. 

Inter-State Coordination & Data Integration: Formalize bilateral MoUs between high-outflow source states (e.g., Bihar, Odisha) and recipient industrial states (e.g., Tamil Nadu, Karnataka) for real-time tracking of migrant workers.

• Example: Odisha-Andhra Pradesh MoU on Brick Kiln Migrants, institutionalizing joint interstate inspection teams to monitor worker safety and prevent bonded labor. 

Protection of Women Migrant Workers: Guarantee equal wages under the Code on Wages, 2019, deploy mobile healthcare vans, and establish localized childcare facilities at construction sites.

• Example: Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Mobile Anganwadis, deployed at urban construction sites to provide nutrition and preschool education to children of migrant laborers.  

RPL and Skill Development: Scale up the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) to certify informal skills and improve bargaining power.

Conclusion

Transforming internal migration into shared economic prosperity requires formalizing employment contracts, offering universal portable welfare, and establishing strong interstate governance frameworks.

Source: DOWNTOEARTH