First Jharkhand Migrant Survey to help understand migrant population better

In a bid to address the lacunae in its understanding of the migrant population and their numbers, Jharkhand is undertaking the Jharkhand Migrant Survey (JMS), a key exercise to draft state-level policy.

JMS is a part of the State’s Safe and Responsible Migration Initiative (SRMI) launched by the end of 2021 and the key objective is to prepare a database of migrant workers that can come handy when the government is formulating policies.

It is expected that in the Survey, around 60 enumerators spread across 24 districts of the State will collect the details from some 11,000 households.

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According to a report in The Indian Express, the aim is to map major sectors in which such workers are employed, identify the social security benefits that their families get and find out the various health hazards that they face.

“Through JMS we would like to bring out the first-ever state-level estimates of migration and conditions, and factors influencing migration. The evidence is expected to be used to draft a state-level policy framework on migration and welfare of migrant workers in Jharkhand in the upcoming fiscal year 2023-24,” Arindam Banerjee, founding partner at Policy and Development Advisory Group (PDAG) told The Indian Express.

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Officials of the State’s labour department said that PDAG, which is part of a consortium, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in October 2021 with the state government to design, build and implement SRMI, including setting up a technical support unit.

MoU lists one of the key aims as ‘Integration of findings from the field survey to help design appropriate state policies to address welfare issues of migrant workers in the State’.

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Jharkhand is not the first state to conduct a migrant labour survey. Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Punjab have conducted such surveys in the past. Another official told the publication that the main difference is that while in Kerala most workers flock off to Gulf countries, internal migration is the issue.

Official sources also said that the government’s rift with the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) over the welfare and safety of its migrant workers employed in BRO projects was another reason for framing the policy.