Photo by Antonio De Lauri. All rights reserved.
Elections are a regular occurrence in India. In 2014, the country went to the polls to elect its national government. Last year, in 2015, as many as four states witnessed elections to elect state governments, including high-profile ones in Bihar. This year, another four states have gone to the polls, while next year a further three are expected. Nevertheless, the high-decibel campaigning in all these elections has ignored one substantial issue for a significant segment of the country’s impoverished population: the social and political exclusion of its internal labour migrants.
Researchers differ on the number of internal migrants in India, with figures ranging from 30 to 100 million. Yet they concur on the fact that vulnerability and insecurity mark migrant lives. Many labour migrants live in fenced or guarded worksites, with conditions similar to those of labour camps. Some live under tarpaulin roofs with poor amenities, working day and night with little by way of ‘overtime payments’. In a study conducted by Professor Ravi Srivastava of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, it was found that 94% possessed no formal labour contract whatsoever. While labour migrants’ inability to vote either in their villages of origin or in the towns of their destination ensures their ongoing political marginalisation.
