Proceedings of The 6th Global Conference on Women’s Studies
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Indian Labour Codes and Interstate Women Migrants: A Post-Pandemic Evaluation from a Gender Integrative Approach
Niyathi R. Krishna and P. Sivakumar
ABSTRACT:
The partition of India in 1947 resulted in the displacement of around 20 million people, accounting to one of the largest forced migrations of the 20th century. After 73 years, the country witnessed another horrific mass exodus during the Covid-19 pandemic: the interstate migrant workers walking barefoot for hundreds of Kilometres from the migrated state to their state of origin, some crossing borders and others mercilessly taken aback, as the pandemic induced lockdowns resulted in loss of livelihoods and shelter. This made the country realise two things. One, internal migrants in India are a neglected priority in terms of governance, though urban centres in India heavily depend on them. Two, the discrimination and Othering faced by them in the destination state, the second class status that they are having, daunts the idea of India as a nation state and the concept of citizenship. India’s population is the most vulnerable in Asia and the Pacific region in terms of access to social protection, among which interstate women migrants are the most left out. Even though India has a cluster of labour laws, policies and schemes in place, it was in 2019 that all these were regulated under four Labour Codes, namely, the Code on Wages, 2019; the Industrial Relations Code, 2020; the Code on Social Security, 2020; and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) Code, 2020. The OSH Code, 2020, addresses interstate migrants through proposing self-registration, mandatory appointment letter, annual travelling allowance, mandatory and free annual health check-up, ration facility through One Nation-One Ration Card scheme, mandatory state helpline facility etc., along with the creation of their national database. One of the major implementation challenges of any labour laws or codes is employers unwilling to enact them, taking the unemployment crisis for granted. Another challenge in the context of interstate migrants is the absence of trade union or avenues for collective bargaining. In this context, we propose to evaluate the futuristic opportunities and implementation challenges of Labour Codes with respect to the interstate women migrants in India, keeping in mind the ILO’s decent work regulations and need for unification of the interstate migrant workers in protecting and maintaining their rights.
The specific objectives of the study would be to (1) Evaluate India’s new Labour Codes, 2019, with respect to the interstate women migrants in the informal economy from a gender integrative approach; (2) Propose implementable policy recommendations for the recruiting agencies in alignment with ILO’s decent work regulations; and (3) Suggest mechanisms for unification, collective bargaining, and mapping the narrative history of the interstate women migrant workers in India.
keywords: Labour Codes in India, Interstate Women Migrants, Migrant Rights, Gender Integrative Approach