Study on working conditions of inter-state migrant labourers in UP

HYDERABAD: National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR) has conducted a study to analyse the working conditions and socioeconomic status of the migrant population in the states of Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. The study highlights the dynamics of people movement, their contribution to the local as well as to national development.

The study has recently been published in the National Journal of Labour and Industrial Law. One of the major issues the study found was the prevalence of the child labour in stone quarries. In addition, the study also found various health hazards that these people face due to poor living and working conditions. The migrant labourers become prone to various respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis, bronchitis and asthma. Women and children suffer from malaria and anaemia due to lack of nutritious food.

Speaking on the important findings of the study, Dr Chinnadurai, co-author of the paper and Associate Professor, Centre for Decentralised Planning, NIRDPR, said, “The nature of high mobility in changing of worksites and status of non-local labours were hardly united to fight against or demand for their rights. None of the labour organisation was registered in any of the work sites. But there are Non-governmental organisation working for welfare and legal support f or t he i nter- state quarry workers. Awareness creation of the rights and provisions of various laws pertaining to labour under the Constitution of

India, making adequate initiatives to implement the protective and welfare measures for the betterment of the working conditions are the need of the hour.”

Poor and unskilled people from Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka move to Tamil Nadu while Uttar Pradesh tends to attract poor migrants from Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand. Seasonal migrant labourers constitute an important component of the workforce in granite quarries in Tamil Nadu and are mostly employed to do bottom-end tasks that are highly risky that the local labourers may not be willing to undertake them.

During the field visits made to the quarries in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, NIRDPR found that most of the quarries were not following any safety guidelines.