As many as 5.79 million people in Rajasthan, or 10 per cent of the State’s population, migrates seasonally in search of employment, says a new study on migration and labour. Approximately 4.38 million households thus send a person or more to other States in search of work seasonally, it adds.
The number of migrants per household is higher among those of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. Construction, transportation and mining sectors are the major employers of migrants from the 10 locations surveyed in the State. They employ almost half the migrant population, says the study report — “Their own country: a profile of labour migration from Rajasthan” — brought out by the Centre for Migration and Labour Solutions of Aajeevika Bureau and supported by Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.
An analysis of 38,828 households from 10 districts spread across five National Sample Survey regions reveals that 46.26 percent of the total rural households have a member or more migrating for work. Barmer and Jodhpur in the western region are those that send the largest number of migrants, followed by Dungarpur and Udaipur, from Mewar and Vagad regions, in south Rajasthan. Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are the top three destinations, collectively accounting for 83 per cent of the migration.
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The north-eastern part of the State has high incidence — 87 per cent — of intra-State migration. The south-eastern and western regions follow the trend, at 66 per cent and 63 per cent, respectively. Jaipur and Jodhpur are among the more popular work destinations within the State.
Migration is primarily rural to urban, with 85 per cent of the workers moving to towns and cities. Construction alone employs about 22 per cent of the migrants, followed by the hotel and transportation sectors, which employ about 13 per cent each. Other important employers are manufacturing, furniture-making and the textile market.
About a quarter of rural-rural migrants work in the mining sector within the State. Others find employment in brick kilns (18 per cent), agriculture (17 per cent), construction (13 per cent), factories (10 per cent) and transportation (5 per cent).
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Nearly one-third of the migrant workers are illiterate. They work in construction, mining, transportation and factories. Another 29 per cent have completed primary education and 33 per cent have undergone secondary education. Less than five per cent have completed senior secondary schooling or college studies. Less than one per cent have formal vocational training or a professional background.
The report says that rural migration brings new challenges to the villages of Rajasthan with millions of rural households facing long-term absence of young populations. The lives and work of rural women are badly affected as they cope with exclusion and an aggravated lack of access to services, the report says. Women experience isolation, insecurity and vastly increased responsibilities. Long-term absence of men reduces women’s access to government schemes, healthcare facilities, education, livelihood, finance, social protection and food distribution because of the low literacy and awareness levels and procedural hassles.
Women’s health suffers because of neglect, caring for children and the elderly, household chores and maintenance of household finances. Cash remittances from migrant men are infrequent and uncertain and rapidly fall during lean periods, leading to debt.
Calling for a strong regulatory system with welfare schemes within the State, the report has suggested that these provisions need to be supported by the setting up of a Rajasthan migrant and unorganised labour protection and welfare authority and an inter-State task force comprising representatives from both Rajasthan and key labour-receiving States such as Gujarat and Maharashtra.