From the margins: Exploring Low-income Migrant Workers' Access to Basic Services and Protection in the context of India's Urban Transformation

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Indian cities attract a considerable number of low-income migrants from marginal rural households experiencing difficult economic, political and social conditions at home who migrate in search of livelihoods and security. These migrants come from around the country as well as across the border from Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar to work in low-income manual occupations in a range of small-scale petty trade, service sector work, transport and construction work. Low-income migrants live and work in precarious conditions and are often denied basic amenities and fundamental rights. Poorly-paid intermittent and insecure jobs make them vulnerable to abuse, extortion or bribery. Many such migrants, both internal and international, lack documentation and proof of identity, whether for basic services such as health care and schooling or electoral voting. Their marginal position entails poorer access to health care provisions and other determinants of health than general (non-migrant) populations, thereby enhancing their vulnerability to ill-health, abuse and ill treatment whilst simultaneously compromising their ability to access protection, legal support or redress, and forms of accountability. Language, appearance and cultural differences exposes many low-income migrants from interior parts of the country or across the border to harassment and political exclusion. Moreover, despite their ubiquitous presence, their precarious livelihoods, informality and invisibility keep them unnoticed in urban planning, in the work of civil society organisations and in social science research. In this context, this collaborative project has been designed to generate evidence to advance the rights and protection mechanisms that must be planned and provided for low-income urban migrants. We shall examine what India's urban transformation means for low-income migrants, their inclusion and social justice by exploring: 1. Low-income migrants' views on transformations in Indian cities, and the opportunities and challenges that confront them; 2. Low-income migrants perceptions of their entitlements, claim-making processes and attempts to protect their own health in a context of poor living and working conditions; 3. The prevalence of violence and extent of exclusion experienced by low-income migrants and how they protect themselves from various forms of violence;4. The legal, developmental, humanitarian and human rights responses to low-income migrants in Indian cities. Fieldwork based in Guwahati (Assam) and Jalandhar (Punjab), two of India's fastest growing cities, aims to enrich our understanding of access to health care, the social determinants of health, and experiences of violence, inclusion/exclusion and accessing justice, from the vantage point of diverse low-income migrant workers, from within India as well as cross-border. The project will focus on migrants' perceptions and lived experiences and will generate evidence to advance the rights and protection mechanisms that must be planned and provided for low-income urban migrants. Low-income migrants are mobile, dispersed and invisible, so they present methodological challenges, especially for creating a sampling frame or mapping in a particular locality. A distinctive strength of the project is its innovative methods for accessing these 'hard-to-reach' groups. The proposed research will adopt a mixed methods approach. In order to unravel the nuances and complexities of low-income migrants' experiences and situate these within the broader processes of urban transformation in Jalandhar and Guwahati, we shall combine ethnographic fieldwork with in-depth interviews, a brief survey, and participatory methods such as photovoice.