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Migrant Workers Struggle To Be Counted During Elections

Migrant workers from various eastern states in Ernakulam say that returning home to vote means job loss and incurring high expenses which many do not want to risk

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Migrant workers | Elections

Karthik Naik (right) and Babulal Naik, seen here in their room in Kerala's Ernakulam are migrant workers from Odisha's Ganjam. Karthik says he cannot afford the trip back home to vote, while for Babulal, a much needed break coincides with the election schedule, enabling him to vote. | Photo courtesy: Shreehari Paliath

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Kartik Naik is in his 40s, and works as a mason’s helper in the Nettoor area, in Kerala’s Ernakulam, where mostly Odia male migrant labourers reside. As polling for his state’s assembly and for the Lok Sabha nears, Kartik says that he does not plan to return to his hometown of Surada in Ganjam district, 1,800 km away, to vote. “I cannot leave my job and go home just to vote, and spend money on travel and other expenses,” said Kartik.

Unlike him, his roommate Babulal Naik was returning home after a year for a much-needed break, he said, which also happens to coincide with elections. In nearly three decades, the roommates--both from the Scheduled Caste Pano community in Odisha--have worked in Surat, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Ernakulam.

Migrant workers contribute 10% of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). But exercising their vote during elections is a struggle for many. They lose wages during the period they are not working, plus they have to spend money for the trip home and back. Thus they lose both ways, interstate migrant workers from Odisha, West Bengal, and Assam working in Ernakulam told IndiaSpend.

In the 2019 general election300 million electors did not vote, which is twice the population of Russia or more than the populations of the UK, Spain, France, Portugal, Netherlands and Germany combined. While the 300 million non-voters are not all migrant workers, the issue of lack of mobility of various groups including migrant workers hampers their voting rights, said experts.

According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), the inability to vote due to internal migration is a “prominent reason contributing to low voter turnout”. In early 2023, the ECI sought a discussion and feedback from political parties on the multi-constituency prototype Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM). But in March 2023, the government informed Parliament that there was no proposal to introduce remote voting for domestic migrants.

Migrant workers said that it would be ideal if they could cast votes at the work destinations instead of having to travel to their home states. Absent this option, migrant worker participation in the upcoming election, which will be held in seven phases across 44 days, is expected to be minimal.

Migrants Cannot Afford to Lose Jobs and Income to Cast Votes

Temporary migrant workers become vulnerable because they have to forgo work and their daily wages to travel to their home states to cast votes.

Kartik and Babulal are children of agricultural labourers and marginal farmers, and have never attended school. They began working as migrant labourers in the late 1990s, a few years after India’s economic liberalisation. In three decades, their daily wages have increased from Rs 100 to Rs 900 for work that can span for 8 to 12 hours depending on the sector and the state. The money they save is sent to their families, usually each week.

“I send around Rs 4,000 depending on how much work I get,” said Kartik.

He recalled that in the 13 years he worked in a loom factory in Surat, he spent 12 hours each day standing, and the intensity of the work affected his eyesight. He moved to Kerala because he owed Rs 50,000 to a moneylender which he borrowed for his own wedding, and he had heard that wages were better in the southern state.

The Covid pandemic hit his earning capacity and he was forced to spend nearly two years in Surada, in Odisha’s Ganjam district, earning around Rs 300 a day. He is now back in Kerala, trying to make up for lost time. Spending two days travelling to his hometown, which can cost Rs 4,000 each way, and losing days of work and wages, is not feasible, he says.

“If I could vote h

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