Concern over north Indian workers in Tamil Nadu: What the numbers say about India’s migrants

Why in News?

• Tamil Nadu has been witnessing controversies in recent months over the recruitment of non-Tamils in government jobs that have triggered a perceptible rise in voices against migrants taking up jobs in the State.
• After the Andhra Pradesh government's recent legislation to reserve 75% of jobs in the private sector for locals, tensions in the state are intensifying even more.

 

The Recent Case of Migrants

• A video clip of a railway job aspirant from a village in Tamil Nadu, went viral describing his experience at the physical examination asserting huge turnout of North Indians.
• The same day several videos were circulated showing a crowd, purportedly of migrants, who had lined up outside the Tamil Nadu Special Police Force Training Ground to attend the physical examination test.
• Hence, concerns were voiced about migrants taking away opportunities from the local workforce in Tamil Nadu.
• The slogans demanding ‘protection’ of jobs in Tamil Nadu have also gained traction among a section of mainstream political parties.
• The government order allowing people from outside Tamil Nadu to get state and central jobs in the state was amended during the former AIADMK regime.

 

Number of Migrants Working in Tamil Nadu

• According to a PIB 2022 report, based on the 2011 census, there are over 34.87 lakh migrant labourers in the state and of this 7.13 lakh are women.
• Also, about half are concentrated in northern Tamil Nadu cities of Thiruvallur, Chennai and Chengalpattu, while the remaining are primarily based in the manufacturing hubs of Tirupur, Coimbatore and Erode.
• The migrant workers are majorly employed as labourers at various construction sites and industrial areas in the state.
  • The industry bodies thus fear that the state’s industrial and manufacturing sector would be severely impacted by a migrant exodus.

 

Unfounded Fears of Migration

• While the popular perception is that a majority of migrants are from north-eastern and northern States, Census 2011 data shows that 2% of the migrants are from neighbouring States like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Puducherry.
  • While 12.76 lakh migrants from these neighbouring States were residing in TN in 2011, the same figure from TN migrating to these States was higher, at 15.86 lakh.
• The data proves that the fears about migration are often exaggerated and misconceptions abound.
• Also, a vast majority of the migrants come to TN mainly for ‘3D’ jobs, i.e., dirty, dangerous, and demeaning jobs, which the locals do not prefer.
• Thus, the migrants are not taking away the skilled and locals in the state are able to get competent jobs because of comparably stronger investments in education, which have been accompanied by economic growth in the state.

 

Extent of Internal Migration in India

• The 2011 census reported the number of internal migrants in India at 36 crore, making up 37% of the country’s population.
  • This number included both inter-state migrants and intra-state migrants. The annual net migrant flows amounted to about 1% of the working age population.
  • Also, the duration of stay of migrants indicates that immigration to TN had been happening gradually for long as 42% of the migrants residing in TN had moved 10 years before, while nearly 23% had moved 20 years before.
• The Economic Survey 2016-17 pegged the size of the migrant workforce at roughly 20% of the population, or more than 10 crore
• District-wise migration data revealed that the highest influx of migrants within the country was in city-districts such as Gurugram, Delhi, and Mumbai while relatively less developed states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have high net out-migration.
  • Also, few pockets like Gautam Budh Nagar (Uttar Pradesh), Indore and Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Bengaluru (Karnataka) and Thiruvallur, Chennai, Kancheepuram, Erode, and Coimbatore (TN) reflected in-migration.
• Also, relatively more developed states take positive CMM (Cohort-based Migration Metric) values reflecting net immigration such as Goa, Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.
  • The largest recipient was the Delhi region, which accounted for more than half of migration in 2015-16, while UP and Bihar taken together account for half of total out-migrants.
  • Maharashtra, Goa and Tamil Nadu had major net in-migration, while Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh had major net out-migration.
• The Report of the Working Group on Migration, 2017 by Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, revealed that 17 districts accounted for top 25% of India’s total male out-migration.
  • Ten of these districts are in UP, six in Bihar, and one in Odisha.

 

Migration in India Report 2020-21

• The report released by MoSPI in 2022 noted that 7% of the country’s population was recorded as a ‘temporary visitor’ across households after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
  • The temporary visitors were defined as those who arrived in households after onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 and stayed continuously for a period of 15 days or more but less than 6 months.
  • On the other hand, migrants were classified as people whose current location of enumeration is different from their previous place of habitation.
• Statistics: The All-India Migration Rate was 28.9% for July 2020-June 2021, with a 26.5% migration rate in rural areas and 34.9% in urban areas.
  • Females recorded a higher share of migration rate of 47.9%; 48% in rural and 47.8% in urban areas.
    • The highest level of migration rate among females was seen at 86.8% for
  • Migration rate for males was 10.7%, with 5.9% in rural and 22.5% in urban areas.
    • 49.6% of the males migrated in search of employment, to take up better employment/ business/ proximity to place of work, or loss of job/ closure of unit/ lack of employment opportunities.
• Reasons of migration: Over 84% of these 0.7% temporary visitors moved places for reasons linked to the pandemic.
  • A total 48.9% of temporary visitors moved to meet family/ relatives/ friends, while 15.7% of such temporary visitors moved for health-related reasons.
  • Also 12.2% of temporary visitors migrated due to loss of job/ closure of unit/ lack of employment opportunities.

 

Conclusion

• While the necessity and importance of migration cannot be overlooked, few concerns raised by locals in the TN need redressal, if there are alleging bias in government recruitment, where people with fluency in Hindi are preferred over the locals.
• However, these concerns should not lead to an anti-migrant mindset and a holistic policy to accommodate migrant workers should be adopted.
• Lessons could also be drawn from neighboring states like Kerala, which had witnessed more in-migration than Tamil Nadu but doing far better in terms of interventions to accommodate migrant workers owing to its home population becoming stagnant due to low fertility rate.

 

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Q1) Who releases the World Migration Report ?

The International Organisation of Migration’s (IOM) World Migration Report every two years.

 

Q2) Who conducts census in India? 

The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under Ministry of Home Affairs, conducts census in India at an interval of 10 years.

 

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Source: Indian Express