Abstract:
At a time when India‘s economy is at a stand-off with her democratic foundations, the
country sees mixed signals from international standings as opposed to domestic
conditions. With the advent of the globalised age, the increased mobility of goods and
services across borders provides a sleek opportunity for increased migration, especially in
the informal sector (Sassen 1994). This is in addition to the fact that migration takes place
as a consequence of unequal development on the one hand and natural disasters on the
other. The discourse surrounding the governance of this migrating population is vast, and
yet, there has been little to no addition to the scientific depository in terms of
comprehensive policy frameworks for the same. India‘s diversity, both economically and
culturally, has always been in the spotlight for being a hotspot for migration.
There is a clear dichotomy visible in internal migration in contemporary India. On
the one hand, it has truly opened up economic opportunities for several who are at a
position to utilise the neo-liberal agenda. On the other hand, migration has undoubtedly
been both the result of and an instrument to enhance poverty and state exploitation of its
subjects. With the rise of populist politics, Indian migrants in other parts of India are seen
as foreigners – a direct consequence of anti-migrant, chauvinist and nativist attitudes of
the people. With increased fluidity of labour across state borders, several Indian states
have witnessed public outcry over the magnitude of the ‗sons of the soil‘ phenomenon.
The opening up of state borders to people who belong to a completely different linguistic,
religious, social or cultural origin has, in a way, solidified the very sentiments against this
openness.
Against this context of a diverse cultural identity and the unique nature of selfemployment, India‘s exclusive character opens up an entire opportunity for scholars to
delve into the matter of social security for migrant workers, juxtaposed against
technological advancements, especially in the age of neo-liberal hyper-nationalism and
this is what this study will seek to achieve. A part of this study was published in the
Calcutta Research Group–Rosa Luxemborg Stiftung’s Occasional Paper Series, Policies
and Practices Issue 111, December 2019 under the title ‘The In-Betweens: An Enquiry
into the Quality of Life of Self-Employed Migrants in Kolkata.