Annual Report [April 2017 - March 2018] Labour and Migration Unit Indian Social Institute [ISI], Accompanying the Distress Migrant Workers Participants at the South Indian Consultation on Distress Migration at ISI-B Introduction The Labour and Migration Unit in its third year, first upon, expanded nationally the involvement and interventions among the distress migrant workers in collaboration with partner organisations, Jesuit social centres and other collaborators. Through presentation on distress migration at the Jesuit Social Action convention, the involvement of the Unit is well recognised and appreciated at the South Asian Assistancy level. Secondly, the Unit published a book Through the Prism of labour: Gender and Distress Migration in contemporary India with papers presented during a seminar at ISI-B. Thirdly, the Unit has moved towards becoming a national training cum resource centre on inter-state labour migration with various resource materials for migrant workers in India. The fourth highlight of the year is that during this period the Unit provided humanitarian assistance to several migrant workers and their families, and so more and more migrant workers began to telephone and approach its Help Desk. Finally, through conducting seminars, workshops, and external presentations, Unit was able to expose the issues pertaining distress migrant workers to the academics, students, media and general public. 1
The main body of the Annual Report (2017-18) is presented under the following Programmes: 1) Seminars/workshops on Distress Migration Conducted 2) Trainings Conducted for Migrant Workers 3) Consultations Organised among NGO Partners on Work with Migrants 4) Help Desk Services Provided to Migrant workers 5) Presentations on distress migration The Report also contains future plans, a list of staff and collaborators, and a separate Statement of expenditure during the financial year 2017-18. 1. Seminars/workshops on Distress Migration Conducted To highlight the issues concerning distress migrants and to promote their well being the Unit organised four two-day Seminars/workshops for students, academics, migrant workers and civil society with a total of 439 registered participants. Group photo of Seminar in Guwahati, Assam Group photo of Seminar in ISI, 2
Photo from Seminar at Trivandrum, List of Seminars/workshops on Distress Migration Organised S. No. Date(s) Place Type & Topic Collaborating Organisation Participants Days 1 19&20 July 2017 2 19&20/1/ 2018 3 23&24 Feb 2018 Volken Hall, ISI-B Volken Hall, ISI-B NESRC, Guwahati, Assam Two-Day Seminar on Through the Prism of Labour: Gender & Distress Migration in Contemporary India Workshop on 4 New Labour Codes and their impact on Workers in the Unorganised sector Seminar cum Workshop on Process of Migration from North East India Women s Unit of ISI-B Labour Commission, KRCBC NESRC, Guwahati 165 2 69 2 85 2 4 7&8 March 2018 Loyola College, Tvdm, Seminar on Inter-State Migrant Workers in : Labour and Civic Life Loyola College of Social Sciences, Tvdm 120 2 4 Totals 439 8 3
2. Trainings Conducted for Migrant Workers Thirteen training programmes, covering 748 migrants, were conducted by the Labour and Migration Unit during the year 2017-18. They were mostly trainings on rights and entitlements, legal awareness, health awareness and on various schemes available to migrant workers. The training programmes encouraged the migrants to organise themselves to demand their rights and entitlements. After the trainings, more and more migrants began to approach the Help Desk of the Unit. Migrant Tribal Garment workers at ISI-B Labour Inspector, Mr. Yellesh Babu addressing the Workers at ISI-B 4
Fr. Martin addressing the Bengali Migrant workers in on labour rights Mr. Richard training the Tribal Migrant Garment workers on various schemes 5
S. No. List of Trainings Conducted for Migrant Workers Date(s) Place Type Collaborating Organisation 1 23/4/17 Muvatupuzha, Training on Migrant Workers Welfare scheme 2 7/5/17 ISI, May Day Celebration & Training Programme for Construction workers 3 20/5/17 ISI, Summer Camp & Training for Children of construction workers 4 11/6/17 Shikshak Sadan, Eklm, 5 18/6/17 Jigani, 6 13/8/17 Perumbavoor, 7 20/8/17 Jigani, 8 10/9/2017 H. Trinity, Banerghata Leadership training to Migrant workers from Odisha Leadership training to North Indian Migrant workers Leadership training to Bengali Migrant workers Training on Labour related issues to Tribal migrant workers Training on the Need to organise themselves by Migrant workers Participants Days - 101 1 CARE, Asha Ankur & Ms Chitra Women s Unit & CARE 70 1 64 1-14 1-51 1 Jeevika, [150] 1-60 1 Commission for Migrants 52 1 9 10/10/17 ISI-B Labour related issues in - 16 1 Garment companies 10 21/1/18 Jigani, Labour Issues related to - 21 1 Karnataka PF, ESI, etc. 11 4/2/18 Udupi New Labour Codes CRI, Udupi 43 1 12 5/2/18 CODP, New Labour Codes CODP, 71 1 Mangalore Mangalore 13 11/2/18 Kalena Labour Issues related to Commission 35 1 Agrahara, Blre PF, ESI, etc for Migrants 13 Totals 748 13 6
3. Consultations Organised among Partner Organisations on Work with Migrant workers With the purpose of networking with other NGOs and Civil Society Organisations to advocate the rights of migrant workers, the Labour and Migration Unit organised five consultations covering 66 participants. List of Consultations Organised among NGO Partners on Work with Migrants S. No. Date(s) Place Type Collaborating Organisation Participants Days 1 3&4/4/17 KDDC, Consultations on work KDDC, Karwar 13 2 Karwar with Migrants 2 21/7/17 ISI-B South Indian Consultation - 18 1 on Distress Migration 3 15/8/27 BDSSS, Consultation on distress BDSSS 13 1 Dharwad Migration at Belgaum Diocese 4 28/9/17 ISI-B Core Team Meeting to - 7 1 formulate Action Plan 5 20/3/18 ISI-B Issues of Inter-state migrant workers in - 15 1 Karnataka and ISMW Act, 1979 5 Totals 66 6 7
4. Help Desk Services Provided to Migrant workers and their Families S. No. Date(s) / Month Place Type of Service Number of Beneficiaries 1 8/4/17 Visiting Police station and joining 1 Family others on the death of a minor domestic worker Phoolmoni Murmu from Assam 2 July 2017 Providing accommodation, facilitating 1 making new passport, etc for Jide Bello, a Nigerian national 3 July 2017 Medical assistance and facilitating 1 family burial in church cemetery for Philip Indwar of Assam 4 April- Sept 2017 Facilitated getting Rs. 118200/ in a case of non payment of wages to 7 Migrant workers Durvijaya Singh & Team in Eklm 5 Sept 2017 Medical assistance, facilitating last 1 Family rites and cash compensation from Garment factory for the family of Mina Turi (Assam) who died of Dengue 6 Sept 2017 Filing complaint with district labour officer for compensation for disability due to accident while working [ Ram 1 worker 7 Nov-Dec 2017 Dev from Rajastan] Filing case with police on the death of Nachib Lakra (23) from Assam and sending body by flight along cash compensation 8 March 2018 Facilitated getting Cash Benefits to the families of 3 Diseased Construction Workers: 3 x Rs 54,000/- = 162,000/- 1 Family 3 Families Relatives paying last homage to Mina Turi from Assam died in 8
5. Presentations on Distress Migration S. Date(s) / Place Type of Programme Presentation Topic No. Month 1 30/4/17 ISI-B Socio Cultural Analysis Distress Migration in India 2 23/6/17 Ashirvad, Panel discussion on Migration Migration and rights of Migrant workers 3 22/9/17 Azim Premji University, Blre Presentation on Distress Migration to PG Students of Distress Labour Migration towards South Development 4 14/10/17 DNC, Pune 20 th Jesuit Social Action Convention 5 20/10/17 St. Peter s Seminary, Class for 4 th year theology students as part of pastoral course 6 28/11/17 ECC, Presentation at workshop on Globalisation and Migration: prospects and challenges 7 26-27/1/18 Nasik, Maharashtra 8 23&24 Feb 2018 9 7&8 March 2018 NESRC, Guwahati, Assam Loyola College, Tvdm, Workshop of GIAN Migration of Western Zone Seminar cum Workshop on Process of Migration from North East India Seminar on Inter-State Migrant Workers in : Labour and Civic Life India Jesuit Social Action among Distress Migrants in South Zone Internal Distress migration and Church Response Issues & challenges of Migrants at the destinations in /south India Jesuit Social Action among Distress Migrants in South Zone North East Migrants in South India: Vulnerabilities & Challenges Migrant Workers in : A Rights Perspective Future Plans 1) Developing Labour & Migration Unit into a networking and collaborating centre on distress migration in India 2) Establishing linkages and networking with Jesuit social centres in migration sources in central and north zone Jesuit Provinces 3) Forming groups of migrant workers and capacitating them to their rights and entitlements through trainings at the destinations 4) Increasing Help Desk services and Humanitarian Assistances to distress migrants 5) Expansion of works at the Advocacy level for the policies in benefit of the migrants 9
List of Unit Staff, Partner Organisations and Collaborators S. No. Name Status Place Mob. No. Email ID 1 Fr. Martin Puthussery, SJ Head, L& M Unit ISI, 7259678750 labourmigration.isi @gmail.com 2 Mr. Richard Gonsalves L &M Prog. Manager L & M, ISI, 9731001682 richardc.gonsalves @gmail.com & Trainer 3 Mr. George Programme Ernakulam, 9447301567 gbrunoin@gmail.com Mathew 4 Fr. Shin Kallungal, SJ 5 Dr. Benny Chiramel, SJ 6 Fr. Sebastian Crossian, SJ 7 Prof. Bernard D Sami 8 Advocate Francis Guntippilly, SJ 9 Mr. Prasad Ravikumar 10 Fr. Jayaseelan Arockiam 11 Mr. Manohar Ranganathan 12 Mr. Kornalius Ekka Organiser State Collaborator, Research Collaborator, State Collaborator, Tamil Nadu Research Collaborator State Collaborator, Karnataka Programme Collaborator State Collaborator Andhra/TS Programme Collaborator Leader of Migrant Workers Jeevika- MWM, Kalady, Trivandrum, Jesuit Migrant Service, Tamil Nadu LISSTAR, Chennai Ashirvad,, Karnataka Loyola College, Tvdm, CITRA, Hyderabad 8111957785 shinkfj@gmail.com 9495903671 benchiramel @yahoo.co.in 9498098283 sebacsj@gmail.com bernarddsami @gmail.com 9449695139 guntipillyf@gmail.com 8907635688 688prasad@gmail.com 9440183106 jseelansj@gmail.com CARE, 9535037596 manorights@gmail.com Jigani, 8050621961 Report prepared and submitted by Fr. Martin Puthussery, SJ Head, Labour and Migration Unit Indian Social Institute 24, Benson Road, Benson town -560046 Accompanying the Distress Migrant Workers 10