By Santosh Digal
New Delhi: Migrants’ Data Manager, an initiative of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) office for labour, is going to be launched soon in order to champion the cause of informal or unorganized workers.
“Migrants’ Data Manager is a web based data management system meant to promote the safe migration of the informal workers into different parts of India in view of their livelihood,” Fr. Jasion Vadassery, CBCI office for labour secretary, told Matters India Feb 19.
It will promote the culture of a structured and regulated migration in search of jobs reducing the vulnerability of the both employee and the employers. This will give the facility of tracking of the migrants from origin to destinations, he added.
Explaining the benefits of data management system, the priest said that migrant workers can register their names pre-departure and get an acknowledgement form bearing a unique registration number. Registered workers will avail the contact details of the facilitation centres of Workers India Federation (WIF) in the destinations. They will get an identity card with local residential address issued by WIF.
Migrant workers have to approach one of the facilitation centres and update with the local/temporary residential details in the destination and avail an identity card. Pre- Departure orientation and travel tips at the registration points are needed. WIF will reach out to the migrant workers with the support of the online migrant data management program.
Migrants’ Data Manager will facilitate the Migrants workers to enjoy the benefits of the interstate migrant workmen act of 1979.
WIF is a civil society organisation registered in 2010. It is a national level organisation promoted by the CBCI for the empowerment of the unorganised workers of the country.
The five national movements and 14 regional labour movements promoted by Catholic Church are affiliated to WIF to form the national network of these movements for the workers. The above said national movements are the National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM), Christian Workers Movement (CWM), Young Christian Workers Movement (YCWM), Pastoral Care of Nomads in India (PACNI) and the Apostleship of Sea (AOS).
There are 78 workers’ facilitation centres promoted by Workers India Federation in different parts of the country, said Sister Rani Punnessiril, programme coordinator of CBCI office for labour.
Registration by the migrant worker at the facilitation centres of WIF. Registered workers will avail the contact details of the facilitation centres of WIF in the destinations.
They can approach the WIF Facilitation Centres in the locality and update with the local/ temporary residential details. The facilitation centres will issue them identity card with the help of WIF secretariat, New Delh, said Sister Punnerssiril, a practicing lawyer in Delhi and a member of Sisters of Holy Cross Menzingen.
According to the 2001 Census there are about 191 million people—or 19 percent of the total Indian population at the time—as internal migrants who had moved long distances to other districts or other Indian states.
About 70 percent of all internal migrants are women, and marriage is the primary reason for female migration, accounting for 91 percent of rural female migrations and 61 percent of urban female migrations. By contrast, men migrate mostly for employment-related reasons. Fifty-six percent of urban male migrants move in search of employment. Other key reasons for migration among Indian men (often with other members of the household) include family, business, and education.
Labor migration could be permanent, semi-permanent, and seasonal or circular migrants.
Semi-permanent migrants are those who are likely to have precarious jobs in their destination areas, or lack the resources to make a permanent move. While they may reside in their destination cities for years or decades, they likely have homes and families in their sending district.
Seasonal or circular migrants, by contrast, are likely to move from place to place in search of employment, or to continue returning to the same place year after year. Such circular flows encompass migrants who may stay at their destination for six months or more at a time and hence need social services at their destination. Scholars have long characterized this migration as a type in which the permanent residence of a person remains the same, but the location of his or her economic activity changes.
Many of the women who migrate for marriage are also participants in the labor market, even if their primary reason for migration is marriage. The domestic maid industry in urban areas, for example, is a rapidly growing sector that employs women, most of whom are rural-to-urban migrants.