Life and Livelihoods of Migrant Labourers in Bangalore - This project has been funded by CBPS

The ‘progressive’ reactions by various state governments in India, including repeal of labour laws to revive the economy and attempts to prevent movement of the migrant labourers, further reinforced the notion that they are useful only to serve the interest of the economy. [...] The diversity of languages in different states of India also implies that the language of instruction in the destination location might be different than the language of the migrant family and might create a barrier in access to public low-cost educational facility at the destination. [...] Loss of Employment and Income While Covid-19 and lockdowns imposed have had a devastating impact on the lives of workers in the informal sector across India, the impact on migrant lives has been even greater because of the absence of social support systems and the suddenness of lockdown that left them stranded at their workplaces (Kumar and Choudhury, 2021). [...] This might have been because the public health crisis was much more evident during the second wave of the pandemic and most of the government efforts were diverted to manage the situation. [...] The Department of Education in the state has been engaged in promotion of inclusive education for children of migrant workers since 2008 and educational volunteers who speak the mother tongues of the migrant children have been appointed by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in select schools in areas with high concentration of migrant children.