The promises of �Housing for All by 2022� have failed to address the needs of the migrants and created sanctuaries of hope for migrant workers. Comment.
There is a lot of wilderness within India comprising around 100 million inhabitants nearly one-fifth of our labour force. Surprisingly the total earnings come to a total of 6% of our total GDP. Unfortunately, these workers are often hidden from the public eye. Mostly these workers are facing grave issues like insecure work environment, low wages, high vulnerability of both women and children. In addition, they are also excluded from basic state services like health and education. They are often also discriminated on the basis of ethnicity. In addition to this, there are a lot of mental problems which lead to extreme stress like debt, bonded labour, etc. Many times they have to furnish address proof for getting money which becomes a major challenge as they have nomadic lifestyles. There is also a fight to get basic ration cards, Voter IDs and even Aadhaar Cards. Even the presence of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act (1979) is hardly invoked and there is only a minimal penalty. Thus, the promise of Housing for All by 2022 seems far from possible as it has not been able to meet the needs of the workers. There are reforms on multi-levels which emphasize sustainable and inclusive urbanisation. All these workers working in the wilderness need to be included in this to bring about inclusive hope for all.
Topics: GS-II: Government Policies and Interventions for Development in Various Sectors