Movers And Shapers

Migrant workers will continue to shape India’s economy in the foreseeable future. Embrace them

Targeted terror attacks in Kashmir triggering an exodus of migrant workers back to Bihar highlights another sad dimension of the many hardships faced by this invisibilised workforce. Killing of migrants in Kashmir has received justified attention. But across India, rhetoric against migrants engendered by nativist politics keeps going uncontested. Migrant workers are the source of cheap labour in destination states and despatch remittances back home, thereby keeping the economy chugging at both ends. The economic logic is uncontestable. But states often choose to ignore the obvious.