A majority of migrant workers in the hospitality industry report disgruntlement with the working conditions they face with nearly a half of them being trapped in debt.
Around 83 percent of migrant workers in the hospitality sector reported feeling dissatisfied with their working conditions in Bangalore. A recent study showed that the discontentment was mostly due to lower or inadequate wages. Other factors that contribute to it are job insecurity and the difficult nature of their work.
Although more than 60 per cent reported their workplace as being good and more than 70 percent reported an improved quality of living compared to the place they migrated from, almost half of them (48 percent) are in debt.
Seventy-four percent of the workers were temporary and doing uncontracted work and 83 percent reported having unpaid holidays.
According to the study people left their place of stay (hometown) due to the lack of opportunities (24 per cent), inadequate income (22 per cent), lack of jobs (9 per cent), failure to succeed as farmers (20 per cent) and for being unable to support their family due to hardships (25 per cent).”
And the main pull factors behind migration to Bangalore were better opportunity (47 per cent), personal reasons or marriage (22 per cent) prior migrants (four percent), availability of job (19 per cent) and higher expected income (eight per cent) .
Migrants often arrive using the aid of other migrants who immigrate from the same region and are often friends, accquaintances or family. But in some cases, they do take advantage of this dependency and cheat and rob the migrants.
Rajiv Naik, a migrant from the northern state of Odisha said that he was cheated by a man who invited him to stay and work in Bangalore. Rajiv said that the man disappeared with all his money. “He was gone when I arrived and he took everything I left with him, I have no place to stay tonight,” Naik said.
Academics cite poor enforcement of existing protection laws as one of the primary reasons for vulnerability when it comes to lack of job security and administrative support for migrant workers.
“We have existing laws in place, like the Inter-state Workers Act (1975), for protection of their rights. But the issue arises when government machinery for state and evern central governments do not properly implement them,” said Madhu Gowda, a sociology academic and a lawyer.
