“Indian workers send home the world’s highest amount of remittance income, but there is no migration policy to protect them at any stage of their journey abroad and back.” Examine. (200 Words)
When it comes to migration to foreign countries, broadly there are 2 types of migration. Firstly, one in where educated people have resources or accessibility to resources. Secondly, people who don’t find adequate employment opportunities in India
In the first case, the role of state is minimal, whereas in second one people face multiple problems, which are mentioned below:
Onward Journey
- Indian workers going to middle east are exploited by travel agents as there is huge asymmetry in information and at times it becomes difficult to understand whether agent is registered or not
- Distress migration happens to Gulf especially from Telangana region, this is a matter of huge concern
Destination
- Living conditions especially those of workers in construction industry is worse, many Indian workers are stranded in the jails as they aren’t aware of law of the nation and lack of proper judicial care renders them vulnerable
- Their only hope remains Indian Embassies which follow uniform policy across countries irrespective of number of Indians staying over there, these embassies need to be realigned as per the growing needs of migrants
Rehabilitation
- Workers who return back home or who are planning to return back home need to find good employment opportunities locally. But no such efforts on government have been made for connecting these people with the market. Government of AP, couple of years back attempted to map the skill set of people returning from Gulf and planned to enhance their skills and connect with market, but project didn’t take off