Labour-starved Kerala looks to the east It’s Their Gulf There’s an influx of labour into Kerala from Orissa, Assam, Jharkhand and Bengal Migrants work in building and road construction, plywood industry, brick kilns and in hotels Skilled workers can earn Rs 500-700 a day Researchers estimate there are 10 lakh outsiders working in Kerala. No official figures exist. *** On Sundays, the Gandhi Bazaar in Perumbavoor, a small town in Kerala near...
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HIV 10 times more prevalent among migrants than general population by Kounteya Sinha
Migration is fuelling India's HIV epidemic. National AIDS Control Organisation's latest figures show that besides high risk populations like sex workers, the highest burden of HIV is among migrants - 3.6%, which is 10 times the HIV prevalence among the general population. With migration rates increasing, the prevalence will only get worse. According to the 2001 census, 30.1% of the population was considered to have migrated (314 million) - a considerable...
More »Is India in the throes of 'distress migration'? by Soutik Biswas
Are millions of Indians being forced to leave their villages for cities and towns because there aren't enough jobs at home and farm incomes are drying up? Is this "distress migration" unprecedented in India's history? Award-winning journalist P Sainath thinks so. Examining the latest census data, he finds that India's urban population has risen more (91 million more than in the 2001 census) than the rural population (90.6 million more than...
More »Census findings point to decade of rural distress by P Sainath
For first time since 1921, India's urban population goes up by more than its rural Is distress migration on a massive scale responsible for one of the most striking findings of Census 2011: that for the first time since 1921, urban India added more numbers to its population in a decade than rural India did? At 833.1 million, India's rural population today is 90.6 million higher than it was a decade ago....
More »Global alert by TK Rajalakshmi
A recent ILO report focusses on the discrimination in employment opportunities and remuneration and wants governments to act. IN recent years, one of the predominant concerns of international organisations, especially those that have a “rights” perspective, has been the impact of the global downturn on various vulnerable sections across the world. Notwithstanding the fact that many countries have signed and ratified conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and are...
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