Senior Partnerships Associate, Bethamehi Joy Syiem looks at how caste relations affect migrant workers and what the private sector can do to address caste in its supply chains.

It has been three years since the pandemic-driven displacement of India’s internal migrants led to an outpouring of shock and sympathy from a ‘suddenly’ awakened Indian public. Have migrant workers’ lives improved? Have the social dynamics that led to their marginalization been addressed? Is there more that can be done?

Many of India’s major industries depend on migrant workers. According to the World Economic Forum, they make up a whopping 139 million in India –  Maharashtra, Delhi and Gujarat receive the most number of migrant workers, most of them from the Northern belt of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. [1][2][3] Much has been documented on the exploitation and poor working conditions of migrant workers, especially informal workers. Their plight in terms of poor safety standards, low pay, lack of social security, and irregular work demonstrates their vulnerability.  

Among the reasons cited for this mass labor migration is the lack of economic opportunities – workers’ aspirations for better incomes in more developed parts of the country. While it holds true as a major reason, migration has been influenced by several other factors, too. There is also a temporary or seasonal migrant workforce whose migration is circular, driven by a need to earn, especially when agricultural returns are low. These migrant workers’ social identities are often heavily defined by specific caste relations. Dalits and Adivasis form more than 40% of seasonal migrants – often employed in the most difficult, hazardous and lowly-paid occupations. [4]

Migrant work also has another face to it for those whom society places at its margins. In the urban labor market, the “town” is an escape – an industrial workforce that allows migrants to experience mixed-caste working and living space, economic mobility and [seemingly] casteless forms of friendship and social interactions. [5] Workers’ decisions to move from rural work to industrial work are defined not only by economic aspirations but also by the desire for social mobility. Yet this is not to say that caste marginalization disappears in the industrial space. Dalit and Adivasi workers continue to face financial, social, and personal obstacles. Systemic caste discrimination permeates every aspect of society, including the private sector. A study in the Tiruppur textile region of Tamil Nadu found that Dalit workers were more likely to be in low-skill and lower-paid dyeing units. Non-Dalit workers were provided with more skilled tailoring roles that came with higher pay and benefits. [6] Supervisory positions and permanent jobs are also likely to be held by upper-caste workers. This cycle designates ‘lower’ castes to jobs considered less valuable, and perpetuates oppressive social dynamics. This may then manifest in the form of discriminatory practices and systematic disparities (in how work is organized, opportunities for promotion, security of employment, etc.). In another example, in stainless steel utensil factories in Delhi, Dalit laborers are concentrated in the most dangerous processes in “crowded, suffocating rooms or sheds” without safety measures. [7] These identities persist in global supply chains across industries and workstreams.[8]

Hence, while rural-to-urban migration provides respite and caste anonymity on one hand, it can also recast a person’s identity through the distribution of jobs, their work conditions and the negative social dynamics they have to navigate. It is also important to note that when gender and caste intersect, we see different experiences. Women workers’ migration narratives are often defined by family and marriage, and the kind of work they undertake is also lower paid and more exploitative, with greater risk of gender-based discrimination and violence. [9][10]

In the aftermath of the pandemic, responsible employers initiated interventions to empower migrant workers within their supply chains and beyond. A Tata initiative, Mission Gaurav stands out as a critical example. Spread over six states, it supported over 1.37 million migrant families through compensation or by providing alternative livelihood opportunities. [11] 

With financial backing from Tata companies- Titan, Voltas, Trent and Tata Capital and collaborative implementation across 15 organizations, including the Tata Trusts, it demonstrated the scale of impact employers can have on worker welfare. 

The case study of the ILO’s SCORE – Sustaining Competitive and Responsive Enterprises, a training engagement model implemented at firms like Sakhti Engineering Works, also spotlights an effort to help migrant workers “belong” through skilling, safety and decent work. [11] At Good Business Lab (GBL), through research and interventions, we have worked to promote the wellbeing of migrant workers in the textile and apparel supply chain, one of our key target sectors. Our work with firm partners like Shahi Exports, India’s largest ready-made garment exporter, has ranged from adapting global labor frameworks to help conceptualize a migrant support center (MSC) that provides a bouquet of services for internal migrants; to testing for and designing a low-cost, scalable, and tailored Buddy System Program to tackle mental health challenges among migrant women in garment factories. 

But the scale of the problem, the depth of migrant workers’ vulnerability, and the extent of the responses from the private sector are still unbalanced. More employers must do more for their migrant workforce. Many firms still miss the caste question. This could be because of the complexity of addressing caste-related issues. It is also likely that caste is more invisible as compared to more tangible-seeming economic vulnerabilities. That is why the first step is to recognize the way caste marginalization is present in the supply chain. With Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) becoming buzzwords that companies use to define their business policies – they must also think about and act on the principles behind DEI for their most vulnerable workers. The Ethical Trading Intiative (ETI), a multi-stakeholder alliance that includes employers committed to ethical working conditions, aptly lists ten crucial steps the private sector must take to address caste in their backyards. [12] Here, I adapted these steps into four simple stages to identify and rectify caste marginalization experienced by migrant workers in the supply chain. 

1. Understand where caste is present in the business – This means identifying the risks, causes and implications of caste marginalization of workers. With the knowledge of migrant workers and women workers’ vulnerability – have mechanisms to engage and understand their specific experiences. 
2. Review policy and demand zero tolerance for caste bias and caste-related abuse – This means execution in HR departments, on factory floors and wherever work happens as a matter of business policy. Caste awareness and inclusion training for leaders, managers and supervisors is also key to execution. 
3. Engage directly with impacted workers – This means supporting their access to representation and association and, importantly, enabling worker communication and grievance redressal. At GBL, we have also demonstrated both the significance and business case of worker voice – importantly, effective grievance redressal mechanisms need to be anonymized, accessible and multilingual. 
4. Identify opportunities for collaboration – Caste-based discrimination is societal, and it is important to leverage experts, unions and the development sector to tackle it through worker wellbeing interventions, sensitization trainings, investing in migrant worker-focused research and more. 

Photo by billow926 on Unsplash.

Have any thoughts, ideas or questions that you would like to share? Write to bethamehi.s@goodbusinesslab.org.

Citations:

[1] India has 139 million internal migrants. They must not be forgotten (WEF)

[2] Data on Seasonal Migrants (PIB-GOI)

[3] Migration in India and the impact of the lockdown on migrants (PRS)

[4] For a breath of dignity: The ‘unfreedom’ of India’s caste-driven labour migration (Scroll)

[5] Caste and development: Contemporary perspectives on a structure of discrimination and advantage (ScienceDirect)

[6] Caste discrimination in contemporary Tamil Nadu: Evidence from the Tiruppur textile region (Orient Blackswan)

[7] Caste of Labour: Dalits, the Industrial Ecosystem and Environmental Politics in Delhi (CSD)

[8] Base Code Guidance: Caste in Global Supply Chains (ETI)

[9] Between Khet (Field) and Factory, Gaanv (Village) and Sheher (City): Caste, Gender and the (Re)shaping of Migrant Identities in Urban India (SAMAJ)

[10] Mission Gaurav (Horizons-Tata Trust)

[11] SCORE (ILO)

[12] Ethical Trading Initiative