Migration Series -3

Let me move ahead in the last part of Migrant Series. (1 and 2) .Whenever someone comes with an idea on research on the issue of migration and informal sector, there is complete lack of valid data on the nature and terms of employment, particularly in the informal sector. This is directly linked with the state’s unwillingness or inability to use resources for counting the large number of informal sector workers including child workers, bonded labour, migrant workers, home-based workers, domestic workers, and manual scavengers.

A person migrate to a prosperous region due to low employment opportunities at home, low agricultural productivity, deeply entrenched feudalism, and negative industrial growth of the region. Due to irregular cash flow nature of agriculture, a household has no other option but to seek credit at exorbitant interest rates from the local money lender during an emergency situation. The household requires huge money for repayment that isn't much available in returns from the agriculture. That is one of the reasons of the migration in any part of the India. This migration is facilitated by contractors and relatives. They are even willing to accept any distress wages that are offered as long as they have access to employment. In the dire need, they neglect the problems of not having an identity cards, lack of awareness about potential employers or favourable working conditions. The share of agricultural households among rural households varied from 27 per cent in Kerala to 78 per cent in Rajasthan. And, an accurate mapping of agricultural household and migrants can show the true picture of migration in India.

According to a recent census report, three out of five people in Indian cities live in slums; the increasing migration will make that four out of five within the decade. Covering over 4,000 towns, the report reveals a figure of 65 million living in unauthorised squalor. "Unrecognised" slums have no access to safe drinking water, electricity and sanitation. Chakarpur village in Gurgaon is a hub of migrants from Bangladesh and West bengal. Such migrants always have a sense of vulnerability and social isolation that is exacerbated by their ignorance, illiteracy and the alien environment. Urban middle class populations who generally hold negative views on migrants. Local Rajasthani and Punjabi is considered as “indigenous and authentic” whereas the migrant from Bihar is a sinister criminal in New Delhi. Low skilled workers are utilized in construction sector, domestic servants, chauffeurs and gardeners while women and child are working as maids, rag pickers, and scavengers with low and irregular income. These slum residents provide cheap labour as their average wages are just 40-70% of the local labour. There is a CARE report on such pathetic living conditions.

Mosse et al (2005) highlight the fact that most formal channels for protection of seasonal migrant workers such as the Minimum Wages Act (1948), the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (sic) Act (1979) and the Construction Workers Act (1996) among many others have demonstrated a bias towards formal sector workers and hence failed to deliver. As a result most informal sector migrant workers rely on contractors and agents to cope with socio-economic risks. Most of these insurance products sold by agents (usually friends and acquaintances of the migrant) have limited knowledge of the product themselves. The reliability of such agents is always in doubt and rarely case is heard about claim settlements through employer. Exhaustive working hours, poor nutrition and occupational hazards (injuries occurring at the workplace) always push migrants back to the source. Early return is a complex and multi-layered issue that often destabilizes the social, economic and psychological well-being of a migrant.

Bonded labour is rampant in brick kilns, stone quarries, beedi manufacturing, carpet weaving and construction, and child bonded labour in the silk industry. Bondage has been rampant across the state, but the government denies the fact. While thousands of bonded labourers have over the years been released, only very few of them were issued release certificate by the authorities concerned. The bigger question is “whether the state is willing to abolish the bonded labour system?” Since no release certificates are issued to those released and no legal case filed against those who keep bonded labourers, hence there is no persecution.

In this last part of the series, we will give focus on Distress Migration and Human Trafficking. It must be kept in mind that trafficking is different from migration. There are important fundamental differences between migration and trafficking. Trafficking of women and children is one of the gravest organized crimes and violations of human rights done either through deception, coercion or debt bondage situation. Human trafficking is also up in India for the similar reasons -- a lack of economic opportunities, a corrupt state, and the rise of terrifying social pathologies. There were hundreds of thousands of migrants, nearly all male, who did not have wives or girlfriends with them, and having an expendable income. This made a much more fertile environment for prostitution, and hence human trafficking in India. There are various pull factors for destination are Jobs, promise of marriage and a better life, demand for young girls and finally access to sex trade.

Immigration has become symbolic of the disruption of communities, the undermining of identities and the fraying of the family values. It is an outright violation of the right to mobility when government stop people from emigrating for better life. But it is a quite impossible task and also not desirable to stop people from migrating voluntarily. However, there are strong voices that objects to migration. Immigration is clearly one of the most fiercely debated and toxic issues of today. Even in policy circles, there is a disconnected emphasis on remittances alone and less about social factors. In the short term migration may result in the loss of local financial and human capital, but it can also be beneficial and contribute to the long-term development of rural areas. Remittances generate significant indirect benefits to the community at large.

Do migrants really have a choice between two such different worlds, between aspiration and deprivation, power and powerlessness? There are no words for me to write on anger, violence and frustration of the migrant worker. The topic of gender, trafficking and migration has been around for a while, but substantive work on this topic that go beyond the anecdotal is yet hard to find. Those who are interested in basic study can look upto : An overview of migration in India, its impacts and key issue.

Migration Series - 2

Let us start from Migration Series - 1. Once there was a popular myth: in the Government and Development Sector: Migration of 'poor' rural population is bad idea. Even when higher caste population was migrating towards cities for education, the government was launching various schemes on poverty reduction in the villages to prevent people from moving to the urban areas. So, why is the Migration Issue ? Migration – when it is safe, legal, and voluntary – is the oldest poverty-reduction and human-development strategy [Migration, Development and Poverty Reduction in Asia] . As per Wiggins & Keats [Stepping out of agriculture] - "Migration takes various forms, distinguished by:  Destination – international versus domestic, rural to urban, rural to rural and urban to urban; and, Length of absence – permanent moves of a year or more, and seasonal moves – to which might even be added daily commuting."

Many moves are not permanent, but vary from seasonal and circular. The reasons for out-migration can vary as a result of debt at home combined with high unemployment level and poor wages for jobs in the village. The availability of temporary jobs in the nearest vicinity with boom in urban development leads a huge circular migration pattern daily. Temporary migration is a routine livelihood strategy for the poor in India  rather than coping strategy to “keep the wolves at bay".

Migration Pattern in India

There is migration from landlocked BIMARU state towards places having either industrial hubs or agricultural prosperity.The tussle between migrants and ‘people of the soil’ has given rise to political right parties in Maharashtra.

Migration Pattern International 

Taking the estimates available, it seems that just over 3% of the world’s population are international migrants (UN Population Division, 2013), while domestic migrants are at least 12% of world population (Bell and Charles-Edwards, 2013).

Remittance Market

Remittances provide the most tangible link between migration and development, a relationship that has only increased in importance since the economic slump since 2008. Let us compare the Official remittance flows compared to other large monetary flows in 1990–2016 projection for India. The graph is constructed with World Development Indicators and World Bank Development Prospects Group. The remittances from the migrated Indians have played a major role in the development of India from 1990's to present day. Personal remittances are estimated towards value of above 70 Billion Dollars leading to major boost in local consumption. Even when FDI and portfolio equity has dipped during recession era of 2008, the personal remittance has grown in a major way in India.

Internal remittances are part and parcel of livelihoods for many poor families in the developing world with migrant members working in big cities. Internal migrants within far outnumber international migrants but the internal remittances, however, are often small.  Rural areas often receive the lions’ share of remittances. As rural-urban wage differentials grow, the returns from migration increase. India has the second largest domestic remittance market in the world (Tumbe 2011). It is also estimated that of the total domestic remittance flows in India only 30% are routed through formal channels. This is in stark contrast with China where 75% of the remittances are formally routed (ibid).

Are internal remittances contributing to poverty reduction? Remittances from urban employment are mainly used for such purposes as immediate consumption, repayment of loans, health care expenses, education and meeting other social obligations. Investments by migrant households in housing, land and consumer durable are common, and migrant income is also used to finance working capital requirements in agriculture as well as small businesses. . Those who are interested can  read World Bank report on The Remittance Market in India(PDF).

Remittances need to flow directly into the hands of the people who need it most. There is a lot of policy gap for this goal that must be addressed on urgent basis by the government.  Policy initiatives by the government and banking institutions have achieved an important result - Most remittances is flowing  through formal channels. India need to revamp their apparatus for issuing passports and regulate agencies that recruit unskilled workers. And internal migrants also need a lot of entitlements and services from the government and better mechanism for fund transfer through financial institutions. The social impact on the lives of migrants will be discussed in the last post of the migration series.

Capacity building of capacity builders

The heading of the article doesn't seems to confuse reader who are working in development sector. Its a fancy word on the training of field staff. The major component of any development project is institutional and human capacity development in the community. Training the larger development community to more effectively support community-driven efforts requires a field staff with local networking, trust and suitable skills. There are six factors to be considered while managing field staff in the development project.

1. Recruitment of LRPs - In this phase, mostly NGOs go either for references or prefer an experienced candidate. The most preferable candidate is not the most smart one from the community. Honesty, non political nature, perception in public and hard work are the traits to be seen in the recruitment phase. With some expectations the leadership is concentrated in the hands of elderly people. The style of functioning of these elderly people exhibits authoritarianism and frustrates younger generation. 25-45 is the most suitable age for the field worker as the community have a certain level of trust and sees maturity in these candidates. Conflict of Interest must be considered before hiring of any worker. The experience of person who has worked recently in fraudulent chit fund will make NGO dubious for the community. Job profile, terms of the payment, and attendance must be clarified in the interview.

2. Knowledge Transfer - Knowledge is a powerful tool. Knowledge transfer requires a detail knowledge on the name of the Project, the Implementing agency, the Funding agency, Area of operation, deliverable of the project, total projected outreach, role of field staff, organization hierarchy and a brief project note. The major hurdles in information dissemination is the language of the medium. This is a huge problem at all India level as the necessary level of English is not known to the field staff. All the training modules and IEC material must be in local language.

Trainers used custom charts, posters, pamphlets and a video for the training session. Short movie clips is the best medium for the transfer of the knowledge. Digital Green has done significant works in this area. Training session in leadership, team-building and core objectives of project require a detail article in itself. There are ways like role play, puzzle solving, group discussion & storytelling depending on the skills of the trainer for knowledge transfer in the training session. Through exposure visits also, field staff gains a lot of insights on hurdles in implementing project.

3. Data Gathering - Honest data collection is one of the rigorous task performed by field staff. Its easy to  criticize but difficult to gather data in rural India.  Hence, the continuous monitoring of processes of change, and scientific evaluation to track the progress of the project depends on the shoulders of the field staff . While going in for a survey it is always a good idea to get to take input  of the local staff as they are the one needing most clarity. Perhaps one of the most common mistakes is not to understand that the rate of collection of data in the rural area differ from an urban setting. The whole process is a lot slower as the villages are really really spread out, migration issue and the low connectivity. The scope of data which has been actually and more importantly properly collected in our villages very low.

4. Gender Issues - ‘Feminisation of development’ is a fancy phrase referring to the recent trend of seeing women as both beneficiaries and agents of change in development. There must be combination of male and female staff to provide capacity building support to the community. Effective two-way communication engage in dialogue and debate on issues ensures proper outreach.

5. Transparency & Ethics - Transparency International's website and their definition of corruption is "Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain" and it "depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority". A disgruntled field staff can go back and sow seeds of distrust in the community. Hence, transparency in decision making with community involvement is a better option rather than handling a post crisis situation. One of the instruments for achieving trust of the community is more transparency. Right to know rules & tell rules are pillars of ethical high ground for any person and institution. 

6. Incentive & Rewards - Employee motivation is a continual challenge in traditional ‘command and control' structure of NGOs. ; Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs applies for small NGOs. All field workers aspire for recognition of work. They look for responsibility when they can either see advancement in salary or non monetary reward for good work.

7. Monitoring -  The reporting officer must  visit their operational sites, observed their activities, witness their implemented project, participate in their committee meetings and interact with numerous ordinary villagers – both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries as well as village leaders. This community-level information will immensely effective in analyzing the implications of these organizations at the grassroots level. Not only this will give the hold of grassroots by these interactions, but also minimize chances of bogus reporting by the field staff.

Working in non profit sector doesn't give us excuse of inefficient manner. Nonprofits often have limited resources to invest in staff training on effective project management. They are also in fear of personnel who may shift to another big NGO after taking training from it. The flip side of inadequate trained staffl due to lack of funds will take toll on the community as well institution. Last of all, never pretend to know great fundas of development in front of field staff. You will have a bad time.

Of Reading and Documentation in Development Sector

In every field of endeavor, the one who reaches the pinnacle will be found to have built upon the knowledge and experience of someone who preceded him. People in development sector feel obliged to submit report to donor organization with complete focus on grants.There are suggestions from the expensive government project reports that end up just gathering dust on a shelf in India. Thousands, of reports on policy, poverty and development issues are released each year world wide. A lot of recommendations, solutions and findings are keep on piling in a PDF version. The citation of paper doesn't imply that it has been read. Even the reader looked only at downloads and citations to gauge the use of these report. The key question that comes in mind: Who will ever read them?

Even world bank is pondering over this question (Which World Bank reports are widely read ?) Recent findings suggest my fears:

The researchers contribute to their discipline's knowledge with the deep optimism of shaping decision making ability of the practitioners. However, practitioners very rarely read articles published in peer-reviewed journals. One of the ironies of development sector has been that researchers have envied practitioners and practitioners have undermined the academia. Practitioners label reports as long, boring, incomprehensible jargon and full of technical language.

Knowledge sharing takes place in many different settings—through seminars, presentations, & blogs. The slow pace and complexity of poverty, gender and development meant that the blog is more for enthusiasts and casual readers. In the eyes of detractors, such trend leads to the the art of reading the superficial books and blogs. But we must look for a long term vision and expanding the base of readers. The popular and easy will boost people's reading list, among many of whom are working with limited knowledge even with high literacy levels. These readers can gradually move towards domain oriented journals. Journals are essentials but have limited ability for the academia to engage people with all types of opinion ranging from stupid to innovative. There is an urgent need to promote new ways to increase impact and spread of the knowledge.

Why don't we see more books/films/blogs like this coming out of development? They do exist; we just have to seek them out and make them available for more than handful of readers. Practical knowledge is interdisciplinary, not confined to narrow pockets of domain. There is an open-access movement in access of journals that will allow practitioners from reading and understanding them. Through books, op-ed and blogs, there can be reach to a wider set of practitioners, journalists, citizens, students, entrepreneurs, civil society experts and other development actors. Even the most talented thinkers have to reach masses for shaping future's public debates or influencing policies. A good idea need to see the light of day. Only the eloquence and wisdom of the author's passion in writing can lead to the compelling reach of such idea for mass audience.

Still and all, most books published in the private market have few readers, most music fails to reach an audience, and most movies fail. Any popular medium of spreading knowledge like blog is no exception of this rule. However, marvelous an idea may be – cannot, on their own change very much the widespread believes. Working in isolation strongly holds back progressive causes and the effectiveness of enlightened minds and seasoned practitioners.

I have written a blog on list of books and list of movies aimed to spread basic ideas to all rather than tiny size of the intended audience. One can look for Understanding Economic Development Reading List by Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India, Arvind Subramanian. Suggested Blogs for those who are still interested :

Organizations : World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Oxfam, CGAP , IFMR.
Academician : Illa Patnaik, Swaminomics, Ajay Shah. Tyler Cowen.
Practitioners :  Arvind Kumar, PMRDF.
Magazines : Down to Earth, India Together .

Naive Advices to Rural Manager

Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning. --- Mahatma Gandhi

I am driven by personal ambition and not selfless heroism. I look for perpetual returns with a field work backing up degree in rural management. Few Rural Managers work towards the development of the rural folks. One doesn't has to be born and brought up in villages and small towns. Empathy and an open mind will do the job really well.

Trial at the field level is much engagement and full of frustration for any rural manager while it's occurring, and and many can vouch for this. When the task is accomplished, the afterglow does provide a lot of satisfaction. Self Motivation is the key to perform in whatever condition one is placed into. As an rural manager, I learned that the most important thing is to listen and to be willing to re-invent himself. There are 11 pointers taken from the job :

1- Can you listen? No one has managed people by silencing dissent. So, Listen with patience all their complaints, stories and sorrow. That is the most important thing one can do for the people. In this field, one can't solve most of the problems of the people. But listening to the grievances, difficulties with empathy is one compassionate act that can be done by an individual. This part of job is non-glamorous but it is essential.

2- Please demonstrable integrity; Half baked promises will erode the trust and words really spread like the plague. That is why never promise what one can't deliver. Even a person managing the ground force of sales team will agree on this.

3- A man's intelligence can be tested by his ability to explain complex problems in simple terms. Rural Manager must be able to establish communication with target audience by giving examples from their real life and surroundings; I did learn few metaphors such as describing seed capital as a seed of plant and investment as nurturing tree. Simple example makes sense and attracts attention rather than pouring of bookish knowledge.

4- Go Vernacular, Become “Unprofessional” in interaction with people. Most of us can become functionally able of speaking/listening a new language but rarely are those who are intellectually and emotionally excel in new language. It is better to live with the community for a brief period of time. And, one should never presume to lecture people about the choices they make. They make that choice with a lot of thought.

5- Have a Positive Attitude and communicate daily with your mentor and seniors. It is not necessary to like the people, but you must learn to enjoy the interaction itself. It is necessary to behave calmly and reply on the merit of comment not be overshadowed prestige of the person.  Hence, oft-heard "that's the way I do work" is simply not good to survive in this field. There is need of agile mind and quick action in every task performed.

6-  Few times, we have a tendency to dismiss or marginalize people we don’t understand. To live and work in rural areas requires special qualities: open dialogue, an interest in culture, a sense of curiosity and an immense energy. Baggage of degree from premier institute holds no good here. Basic knowledge of festivals, songs, taboos i.e. local culture will be a great asset and often can be used to break the ice between strangers (mostly women) at the field. It is needless to emphasize upon to be gender & caste sensitive.

7- I always assume that knowledge will always help in seeing the broader prospective. One must always know in detail the relationships among agro-climatic conditions, natural resources, production systems, markets and livelihoods of rural people. Theoretically valid ideas taught in close classrooms might not be implemented exactly as planned and that practices that worked well in one region might not be replicated to other domains. Even one is well versed with a degree, expanding into areas where they have no competence, do harm, not good. Don't confuse ignorance with originality

8- Leadership happens when people grow and develop under you. Give credit where it is deserved; a public acknowledgement wins more faith rather than monetary compensation. Any leadership with underdeveloped teams lack strong internal sounding individuals for ideas and concerns. In order to succeed, one must be given a chance to fail. That can one do for helping the subordinates.

9- Respect is something, a rural manager has to have. Preach what you practice. Example is little controversial but never drink in public and then lecture about ban on alcohol. Wrong person however close need not to be defended, sympathized with and passed over in silence. It will lead to conflicts whose resolution depends only on your respect as neutral. Unless one is just without becoming aggressive and dominant to every body, one will never gain respect.

10- Don't watch the trees too closely, you will miss seeing the forest; One must not work in haste in drawing conclusion on seeing few individuals, lookout for the ecosystem which nourishes/exploits them. Simply, it means so involved with the details of a situation that he loses sight of the larger issue. The reverse may also happen true where one can't see the trees for the forest. It is also possible to be too broad (macro) when looking at a situation. Never act like top managers who make impossible demands from subordinates. It will only suggest a complete unfamiliarity with the complexities of a project.

11- The best of rural manager is to knew when to be theoretical and when not to be. Education is not just about reading. It also involves observing and wearing down the nonsense through rational responses. The success depend on the capacity for hard work and an enormous interest in meeting people and absorbing whatever they conveyed. It takes a village… to make a rural manager.

The challenge as a rural manager is to develop high level skills through education and on-the-job experience that cannot be outsourced. Am I cut to be a working in rural areas ? If not, I must develop few qualities that can help others. I think that's any rural manager's responsibility really, to make world a better place and to leave the rural India an easier place to work for; to set foundations and guide with advice to upcoming managers and entrepreneurs. Somehow the belief that your work is helping improve someone's life by an iota makes it all worthwhile.But at the end of the day I think job is very simple: to work with the best of our ability, so that to inspire younger generation to excel given standards. Legacy, Career are of utmost important but life is about loving what you do and doing what you love, while gaining fresh pleasure, wisdom and maturity.