SOON AFTER the lockdown was declared on March 24, here in Delhi we were informed by the West Bengal state leadership of the CPI(M) that a large number of migrant workerswere making distress calls to their contacts in the Partyback home and seeking help. In consultation with comrades in West Bengal, it was decided that contacts of our trade union leaders in Delhi would be passed onto the workers in distress. Within two days, the numbers were shared amonghundreds of workers who in turn passed them on to their colleagues from other states, similarly strandedin Delhi.

Till April 23, around 20,000 migrant workers were contacted and given direct relief by the Party and the CITU in Delhi in the form of food kits which included foodgrains, edible oil, salt, sugar, soap. Many of these workers did not have enough money even to recharge their mobile phones. To make it easier for themselves, different groups of workers gave the name of one contact telephone number, a sort of group head who coordinated the relief work for that group. This survey doesn’t cover construction workers and rag-junk-scrap collectors though the CITU could reach out relief to them.

It was found that many of these workers did not have ration cards, many did not have Aadhaar cards. It was necessary to get all these details to also assist workers to access the Covid relief programmes of the Delhi government. It was in this context that it was decided to conduct a survey of the workers in contact with us through relief work. A team with Vikas Rawal, Ranjini Basu, P V Aniyan and Srabani Chakraborti helped with the telephonic survey, prepared the questionnaire, coordinated the calls and finally processed the data collected.  This telephonic survey was conducted with the 506 “group leaders”, representing 8,870 workers. Some of the respondents were living with individual families. For the purpose of this survey, individual responses of the contacts were noted, however, in the analysis of the data we could make some projections for the entire population of stranded people who approached for relief, since they were banded together in terms of similar employment, work and earnings. A team of 40 volunteers carried out a survey between April 10-18, 2020 among workers from the national capital region (NCR). The volunteers reported acute anxiety among most of those to whom they spoke. A question which haunted many was, when would they be able to go home. Another was the worry about not having work or earnings, the inability to pay rent, and the haunting fear of hunger.

SURVEY FINDINGS
Migrant workers from West Bengal (222 people or 44 per cent) constituted the largest block among the 506 respondents, followed by Bihar (162 people or 32 per cent). A majority of the migrant workers from West Bengal belonged to North Dinajpur and Malda districts, while a large number of those from Bihar hailed from Sitamarhi district.We also recorded responses of a Nepali migrant worker.

Table 1: State of origin of respondents                  

More than half of the respondents, or 58.5 per cent, are currently residing in neighbourhoods of East Delhi. These highly distressed localities include Gandhi Nagar, Ajeet Nagar, Old Seelampur, Raghubarpura, Shakarpur. This is an area known as one of the largest garment and cloth bag producing centres in north India comprising mainly of small and medium enterprises. With the lockdown, everything has closed down and no salaries have been paid.  Apart from workers who have lost their jobs, thousands of women also get outsourced work from these small units such as cutting threads on garments. The lockdown has also put an end to all this home-based work income, mainly done by women.We also received calls for relief from Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Noida and Haryana.

The survey brings out the insecurity of work for the migrants. Only 28 per cent had monthly paid jobs. Of all the respondents covered in the survey, a majority worked as casual workers. About 35 per cent worked on piece-rated contracts and 23 per cent were daily-paid workers. This means that for 58 per cent of workers there is no guarantee for them of the number of days of work they can get. In such a situation it is clear that most of them would have no savings to fall back on. This is the main reason for the desperation we have seen of migrant workers wanting to go home. About 13 per cent respondents were self-employed, and in their case with very fluctuating incomes.

Table 2. Type of employment of respondents
Type of work Number of respondents Per cent
Self-employed 66 13
Work for monthly wages 140 28
Work for daily wages 116 23
Work for piece-rated wages 177 35
Unemployed 7 1
Total 506 100

In terms of occupations,the largest group (198 respondents, 39 per cent) was of people working as tailors. This included people who were self-employed, people working in small tailoring shops, people working as tailors in garment enterprises, as well as home-based workers (either self-employed or working for contractors). Within the general trade of garment workers, a large number of these workers are embroiderers doing intricate work on garments. It requires extreme concentration but the earnings are meager. Casual manual workers constituted about 16 per cent of all respondents. Technicians and skilled workers constituted 7 per cent of respondents. Factory workers (apart from tailors in garment factories) constituted about 8 per cent of respondents. About 7 per cent of respondents were street vendors or self-employed persons who did manual work.

Table 3.Occupationof respondents
Occupations Number of respondents Per cent
Tailoring 198 39
Embroidery workers 22 4
Miscellaneous casual manual labour (daily/piece-rated) 83 16
Factory workers (miscellaneous) 39 8
Monthly-paid manual workers 28 6
Technicians (mechanics, electricians) and other skilled workers (carpenters, masons) 37 7
Domestic worker 7 1
Home-based worker 5 1
Rehri/Street vendor, and other self-employed manual work 35 7
Auto/E-rickshaw driver 10 2
Small business 10 2
Private salaried job (non-manual) 22 4
Others/Unclassified/Non-workers 10 2
Total 506 100

LOW INCOMES

As far as income is concerned, it is really shocking how low the income is compared to the work done. Four per cent of respondents had monthly income less than Rs. 5000 and about 52 per cent of the respondents covered in the survey had incomes (before the lockdown) between Rs5,000 andRs. 10,000 per month.With such low incomes, the quality of life of these migrant workers is extremely difficult in a city like Delhi. Because of high rents, most workers live together in small rooms sharing the rent. These are mostlyin buildings with little ventilation, water scarcity and poor sanitation. Yet in spite of such poor earnings, sacrificing their own needs, many workers sent a substantial portion of their earnings to support their families back home.

Table 4: Proportion of respondents by monthly income class
Income class Number of respondents Per cent
<=5000 18 4
5000-10000 255 52
10000-15000 172 35
>15000 43 9
Average Rs. 11394

Note: Data on income was not recorded for 18 respondents.

Table 5: Proportion of migrant worker respondents by the monthly remittances sent to dependents in native place
Monthly remittance class Number of respondents Per cent
Zero 107 27
<=2000 49 12
2000-4000 58 14
4000-6000 97 24
>6000-8000 59 15
>8000 31 8
401 100
Average Rs. 4015

Note:  76 respondents could not provide information on amount of remittances, mostly because of irregularity.

FOOD INSECURITY

The respondents were asked about the present status of available essential rations -- rice, atta, pulses and cooking oil – with them. It was found that 29 per cent of the respondents did not have any rice, while the proportion was 51 per cent, 52 per cent and 54 per cent for atta, pulses and cooking oil respectively. For the others, we calculated the average per head (on the total stranded population) availability of these food items, which turned out to be an abysmal quantity.  This signifies the near starvation levels of majority of workers and their families.The survey found that 330 or 65 per cent of the respondents had not received any form of government food support, either in the form of dry rations or cooked meals. And of the 176 respondents who received food support from the government, 120 reported that the amount was inadequate.

Six per cent of the total respondents did not have either a ration card or an Aadhaar card. On projecting this percentage on the total number ofpeople in the groups (8314) of workers that the survey covered, about 500 persons neither had a ration card nor an Aadhaar card. These people were ineligible for the Delhi government’s policy of providing dry ration support during the period of the lockdown only tothose who either had a ration card or at least an Aadhaar card. The rest are expected to go to food kitchens. But those who have temporary rented places in Delhi would much prefer dry rations but without these documents, they suffer.
Of the total number of respondents almost one fourth, 22.5 per cent (114 people) did not have a bank account. It was further found that 3.5 per cent of the respondents didn’t have a ration card, Aadhaar card or a bank account. On projecting it on the total number of people in the groups, this would stand at 291 persons. These people then are ineligible for any direct government support through the public distribution system or direct bank transfer. Relief for this section of migrant workers and their families could only be provided through direct delivery of dry ration to them.

CONCLUSION
The large number of migrant workers are in unstable and vulnerable employment. Their earnings are meagre. They sacrifice their own basic requirements, living in terrible conditions to send help for their families back in their villages. Yet there are no regular government surveys of migrant workers. They are the “nowhere” people not figuring in any policy framework.  Lakhs of them live in Delhi and millions of them across the country. One of the stark realities brought out by the lockdown is the callous ignorance of policy makers sitting in the central government towards migrant workers, reflected in the absence of any relief measures for them and their families. This survey gives us a glimpse in concrete terms of some aspects of this reality. In the coming days, the Party and the CITU in Delhi will take the survey work further to build struggles for the rights and for the dignity of these workers.