Rekha Sivanna Gaur, a migrant worker from Karnataka, stands at a naka (crossroad) in Sanpada, Navi Mumbai every morning along with hundreds of others in the hope that labour contractors will give them jobs at construction sites. On some days, some of them get work, but mostly they go back home disappointed.
The post-pandemic migration to Mumbai has not been easy for migrant workers from different states who had no option but to move back to the metro city in search of work as there were no opportunities back home.
Gaur first came to Mumbai in 2015. In between the two Covid-19 lockdowns, she and her family had left Mumbai in a truck to her village in Karnataka but poverty and hunger drove them back to Mumbai.
“After we came back to Mumbai, we could not find accommodation in city’s slums. Politicians had told the authorities to drive us away. We were scared and walked 25 km to Navi Mumbai,” says Gaur.
She was hoping to find work in the construction sector, but could not. Out of desperation, she went to some housing societies to find work as domestic help. She says people don’t trust her because of her traditional attire—she is a Lambini migrant who prefer to dress in colourful choli (blouse), flared long skirt with embroidery and chunky traditional silver ornaments.
Like Gaur, Anis Shaikh, who hails from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, moved to Mumbai because of abject poverty back home. In December 2022, he bought a one-way ticket to Thane in Mumbai. His family was against the idea.
Shaikh is a pheriwala (handcart vendor). This week he is selling garlic. The previous week, he had sold watermelons and the week before that, he sold fish. When the losses he incurred from both overshot his meager investment, he decided to sell garlic.
There are other issues. “If I stand at a place, I will have to pay hafta (protection money), so I walk around. This too is not safe. There are people who move around on two-wheelers. They threaten us if we do not pay them,” says Shaikh.
The handcart is rented out from the owner of a cycle shop for Rs 80 a day. Shaikh lives in a 125 sq ft room with two others. They split the monthly rent of Rs 3,000. For Rs 2, he can use the public toilet, for an additional Rs 5 he can take a bath and for an extra Rs 5, he can also wash his clothes.
“Migrants can no longer afford to be in Mumbai,” says Dr Nitin Lata Waman of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
Change in Migration Pattern
On March 24, 2020, when the nationwide lockdown was announced, it came as a blow to lakhs of migrant workers from different states who had made Maharashtra their home.
According to estimates by the Journal of Migration Affairs, published in September 2020 by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Patna, there were 38 lakh migrant workers in Maharashtra before the pandemic. Of the 38 lakh, around 12 lakh left the state during the Covid-19 health crisis.
A large chunk was living and working in Mumbai.
After train services were stopped on March 23, 2020, thousands of migrants were left stranded in Mumbai. In April, the Maharashtra government had written several letters to the central government asking for train services to resume with advance planning from Mumbai and Pune.
The state witnessed its first major migrant protest on April 14, 2020, when hundreds flooded the streets outside Bandra station, furious over the extension of the national lockdown. The Mumbai Police had resorted to lathicharge to disperse the crowd. After the incident, the Maharashtra government had made several requests to migrants to stay put.
A few weeks later, while commenting on the migrant worker crisis, Uddhav Thackeray, the then chief minister of Maharashtra, had said: “Don’t worry. We are gradually starting work in Maharashtra. If it is possible you can come back to work, you will continue with your livelihood.”
While some migrant workers left Mumbai for good, some arrived back in Mumbai due to a lack of opportunities back home.
The statistics of the Maharashtra government indicate that there is a notable change in the volume and direction of migration into Mumbai. “Migration to Mumbai has declined by 15 to 20 percent. We have noticed that post-Covid, fewer OBCs (Other Backward Castes) are migrating to Mumbai as many have land back home. The ones who are coming back are the landless labourers from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes,” says Waman from TISS.
Construction Sector Hit
For decades, most of the migrant workers who arrive in Mumbai have been working at construction sites. But construction activities in Mumbai have reached a saturation point and there has been no significant uptick after the pandemic. This is another reason why many migrants who left have not come back to Mumbai.
With Mumbai offering more service-oriented jobs, it is now areas such as Thane and Navi Mumbai, part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), that are drawing migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Rajasthan and the north-eastern states. “Thane is also close to the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, from where most of the trains to UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam and Odisha originate. It is also an important halt for trains originating from these states with high migration rates,” says waman.
The construction sector has been hiring migrant workers in an unorganised manner which leads to issues like the labour force not getting to avail of any benefits.
The workers registered with the Maharashtra Building And Other Construction Workers Welfare Board are entitled to a slew of welfare measures such as social security schemes, including ‘Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan Yojana’, insurance schemes, medical and health benefits, financial assistance for marriage and education, funeral assistance for a registered worker in the event of death at the place of work and housing schemes for rural and urban workers, etc.
According to Vinita Balkundri, a social activist, rampant corruption in the government’s labour department and its unholy nexus with developers, builders and labour contractors, ensures that the workers are not registered thereby denying them the benefits from the welfare board.
“The registrations don’t happen. When a worker is at a site for 90 days, they are entitled to insurance and other benefits,” says Shankar Pujari, general secretary of the Maharashtra State Construction Workers Federation. He adds: “If the worker has a 90-day job certificate, he can avail of the benefits given by the welfare board. The employers do not give this certificate. There is large-scale exploitation of migrant and other workers by the builders.”
Suresh Jadhav, the Labour Commissioner of Maharashtra, was unavailable for comment.
Fewer Women Migrants
Balkundri has been working with street vendors, hawkers, construction labourers who stand at the nakas and domestic helps across Maharashtra. According to her, there has been a decline in women at construction sites after lockdowns.
“Usually, traditionally, the contractors have been giving jobs to entire families at job sites. But now, men do not prefer to bring their wives and children to the cities for work. The families continue to live in villages,” she says.
Because not as many women have been migrating, the domestic help sector has taken a hit too. Also, after the pandemic, many urban women are working from home and prefer not to hire helps. “The work load of domestic helps has come down and so has their income. These women now double up as hawkers to earn a little more,” says Balkundri.
Inhuman Work Hours
Many migrant workers are employed as security guards with private security services that have mushroomed across Mumbai and Maharashtra.
Though they are promised Rs 12,000 a month for a 12-hour work shift, they are paid only Rs 9,000 by the agency. If they are provided accommodation–five people living in a 150 sq ft room with no amenities— and basic food, then the labour contractors who supply manpower to security agencies, pay them only Rs 8,000.
“To earn extra money, we work both shifts without a break. We have no off days. They deduct our salaries if we take even a day off,” says Tribhuvan Yadav from Darbhanga in Bihar, who works as a security guard.
The Local-Migrant Workers Debate
Chief minister Eknath Shinde dreams of making Mumbai a slum-free city. While speaking at an event in Mumbai in October 2020, Shinde had asked city developers to make affordable homes.
An architect who has worked with some of housing projects of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) feels that a slum-free Mumbai with affordable housing is a utopian dream. “If you look at some of the redeveloped SRA houses, they are too small. These houses are expensive and the poor will never be able to afford them. This will result in a huge displaced population and newer slums coming up at different places,” he says.
The incoming migrant workers post-pandemic have once again triggered the local-migrant debate. Activist Swagata More, who works exclusively for the welfare of local domestic workers, is angry that the migrant workers are back in Mumbai. “As it is there are not many job opportunities for locals. We have approached many housing societies to employ only Marathi women as domestic help,” says More.
However, Mumbai-based author and journalist Pandharinath Sawant applauds the resilience of the migrant labourers. But, with caution.
“They come with nothing and work very hard to get out of poverty. However, in all these years, UP and Bihar have not done anything to hold their people back. Mumbai has reached its maximum. The city cannot take any more migrant workers,” says Sawant.
(This appeared in the print as "The Big Shift")
