‘You cannot build a skilled society on low-cost labour’ — IE thinc Migration

At the inaugural Indian Express Thinc Migration series in February, presented by Omidyar Network India, moderated by Udit Misra, deputy associate editor, panelists discussed the crisis in India’s internal migration.

Professor at Centre for Development Studies, S Irudaya Rajan, stated that India has 140 million inter-district, 400 million intra-district, and 60 million inter-state migrants. While, urban mobility stands at 40 per cent, he said that "with increasing urbanisation, we are going to have more migration." (Express Photo by Abhinav Saha)

Ravi S Srivastava, Director, Centre for Employment Studies, asserted that the pandemic hit the circular migrants, who are vulnerable because of their position in the job market. “The impact was not only on their lives as they moved back to the rural areas, but also on the industrial and urban economies that saw a huge gap,” he said. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

Pointing towards a lack of data on migrant workers, Alex Paul Menon, Labour Commissioner, Chhattisgarh Government, asserted that "without credible data, all of our policies lack any link to any evidence and, therefore, are prone to fail,” he said. (Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)

Rahul Katyal, Managing Director, Capacit’e Infraprojects Ltd, highlighted the need to accelerate skill development so that the workforce is equipped to use the latest technologies. At the same time, there’s a need to regulate the kind of facilities we provide them, he said. (Express Photo by Deepak Joshi)

Srivastava added that universal registration, and universal social protection, as mentioned in the NCEUS report, should be ensured by the Central and state governments. “You cannot build a skilled society on the back of low-cost labour. We need to rethink our labour policies.” (Express Photo by Pradip Das)