The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has signed an MoU with Shahi Exports recently to support and assist migrant workers through the institutional framework of a Migrant Support Centre (MSC).
IOM is a United Nations agency that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants, including internally displaced persons, refugees and migrant workers.
In a statement, Shahi Exports, India’s largest apparel manufacturer, informed that it has been running the MSC for migrants working in various industries across Bengaluru since 2021. Currently, it serves nearly 4,000 migrants.
Under this partnership, IOM will provide technical and advisory support to strengthen and operationalise the Shahi-run MSC in Bengaluru. IOM will assist Good Business Lab (GBL) – a not-for-profit labour innovation organisation to understand the issues faced by interstate and intrastate migrant workers in an urban setting and empower migrant workers and improve all aspects of their welfare– working conditions, access to legal entitlements, social security, health, education and vocational skills. GBL came on board as the project’s design partner, conducting visits to existing MSCs to understand the provisions of specific services and if there exist any disconnect between migrant experiences and support offered by centres.
Sanjay Awasthi, IOM’s Head of Office, observed that such a collaboration would leverage the strengths of multiple stakeholders across the supply chain to achieve the envisioned benefits not only for the migrant workers and their employers but towards the social and economic development of migrants’ source and destination states, and ultimately India as a whole. To mitigate these risks and to intensify the socio-economic benefits of internal migration, it is imperative that supply chain partners play a role in ensuring the welfare of migrant workers.
“The MSC provided shelter, utility support, medical aid, financial, legal literacy and toll-free redressal numbers to resolve issues migrants face in the garment industry and other sectors. We gained valuable feedback from the beneficiaries of the centre to help us and the learnings from our first effort make us confident to scale MSC up to reach 10,000 migrants by 2025. Our multi-stakeholder partnership with IOM will leverage their global perspective and combine it with the knowledge of on-ground partners, including State Government wings like Odisha Rural Development And Marketing Society (ORMAS), to achieve a model that can give migrants the support they need in a new city or town, ” said Anant Ahuja, Head of Organizational Development, Shahi Exports.
IOM has provided technical support for the establishment and functioning of several such centres for migrants throughout the world.
It is pertinent to mention here that as per Economic Survey reported between 2001-2011, the Inter-state labour migration in India averaged between 5 to 6 million people a year which constitutes 17 per cent -29 per cent of the labour force.
