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UPSC Optional 2025Question 18SociologyIndustrialization and Urbanisation in India150 words

What are the major problems faced by the labour migrants while working in informal sectors of Indian States ? Discuss. (Answer in 150 words)

Model answer & approach

- What are the major problems faced by the labour migrants while working in informal sectors of Indian States ? Discuss. (Answer in 150 words)
Introduction
The migrant in informal work is doubly unprotected: informality denies him a contract, migrancy the claims to enforce one.
Body
1. Who they are: Circular workers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Jharkhand in construction, brick kilns, textiles and domestic service in Delhi, Surat and Kerala, hired without contract, social security or enforceable wage.
2. The problems they face: Wages are underpaid or withheld, with no recorded employment relation to enforce. Contractors who advance money against future work produce the neo-bondage Jan Breman documented in Gujarat. Hours are long, sites hazardous, housing a shack or a slum room. Because entitlements are tied to domicile, ration, health cover and schooling stay in the village. Regional hostility periodically turns violent, and women face harassment on top of unpaid domestic work.
3. Why migrancy makes it worse: He cannot vote where he works, has no kin network, and is replaceable at a day's notice, so he cannot bargain.
Conclusion
The 2020 lockdown showed he is not even reliably counted; registration and portable entitlements are the remedy.
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