being organised by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affair (MOIA), in partnership with the Government of NCT of Delhi and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi from January 7-10, 2010.
India is one of the world’s largest migrant sending countries (20 million migrants according to World Migration Report 2005) and also hosts migrants from various countries (placed eighth in the world in 2005). India is the largest recipient of workers’ remittances at US$ 52 billion in 2009 according to World Bank estimates. Most of these remittances are made, not by highly-skilled NRIs in the West, but by unskilled and semi-skilled migrants who comprise bulk of the labour migrating out of India. While the PBD is organising seminar on property related issues with construction lobby, it does not give space to discuss the problems of migrant workers who are the backbone to the remittances of India. Similarly the issues related to financial crisis do not find any place. Infact, the PBD has turned its priorities upside down. Processes such as PBD must involve unions and civil society organisations and should not be restricted to alliances with businesses alone. At present the PBD deliberations are marked by a complete lack of transparency.
We demand that:
1 The Government of India needs to adopt through a democratic process, a migration policy that has a rights-based framework and ensures protection of those migrating out of India as well as migrants to India irrespective of race, religion, gender and so on.
2 The policy must recognize India not only as a migrant sending country but also a migrant receiving and transit country.
3 The policy must also recognize females as legitimate economic actors, build on a south Asian perspective on migration, protect the rights of undocumented, ensure reintegration of returnee migrants and address increasing instances of detention of migrant workers and develop a humane response to it.
4 The Government must ratify and implement all international legal instruments particularly ILO Conventions 97 and 143, and the 1990 UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families; and that the creation of work agreements with governments of destination countries based on these and other human rights standards and ensure coordination among various international agencies to protect the rights of migrant workers.
5 Any change in the legal instruments should have provisions for comprehensive regulation of recruiting agents with strong punitive measures such as bans and imprisonment for agents who engage in illegal, unsafe, fraudulent and other practices; and stronger enforcement. The government should continue to play its role in the licensing and monitoring of recruiting agencies and regulating the fees.
6 The government must take steps towards enhancement of employability of migrant workers and their upgradation of skills through training institutes supported by the government
7 The government must ensure that transparency is maintained through information dissemination by way of dissemination centres, websites and publications
8 Invest in capacity building of embassies around protection of rights of Indian citizens abroad.
NB: Trade Unions submitting this representation include Delhi units of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Centre of Indian Trade unions (CITU), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), Trade Union Coordination Committee (TUCC), United Trades Union Congress (UTUC), All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), MAC, Migrant Nepalese Association India (MINA) along with Centre for Education and Communication (CEC) Building and Wood Workers International (BWI) and Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA)
Venue: JANTAR MANTAR (NEW DELHI) TIME: 4:00pm to 6:00 pm DATE: JANUARY 9, 2010.
Secretariat: 173 A, Khirki Village, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi – 110017, Ph: +91-11-29541841/29541858/29542473; Fax: +-91-11-29545442; 9868366532,9868650427 email: pallavi@cec-india.org; cec@cec-india.org
Thanking you with Request all to you Pls. Participate and supports of Migrants Workers abroad and in India of security ,safety ,decent working condition equal pay no discrimination
