- Urban poverty in India affects over 81 million people, with 25% of the urban population living below the poverty line. Lack of a uniform definition of urban poor and lack of data on urban migrants makes addressing urban poverty challenges. - While there are several national schemes aimed at different vulnerabilities of urban poor like housing, livelihoods, healthcare, they operate in isolation without an integrated approach. Identification criteria for beneficiaries also varies between states. - Short term urban migrants, often working in construction and other informal sectors, remain invisible in data and are largely excluded from social protection schemes due to lack of portability between states. - There is a need for a national urban poverty alleviation policy and institutional structure,

1. URBAN POVERTY, MIGRANTS, LIVELIHOOD ISSUES IN INDIA
PRESENTATION TO INDIAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY SCHOLARS
By Dr. Ravikant Joshi

2. URBAN POVERTY
If the misery of the poor be caused by the laws of nature, but by our
institutions, great is our sin – Charles Darwin
Urbanization of poverty is taking place and it will continue in future as more
and more rural poor will migrate to urban areas.
Urban poverty in India is over 25 percent; close to 81 million people in urban
areas live below the poverty line.
According to the World Bank, 65.5 million Indians live in urban slums and
13.7% of the urban population live below the national poverty line.
As per Government claim the proportion of poor below the poverty line
has dropped from 45% to 22% between 1994 and 2012.

3. SEVERAL NATIONAL, STATE MISSIONS/SCHEMES TO ADDRESS VULNERABILITIES OF THE
URBAN POOR
Economic vulnerabilities
● DAY-NULM, MoHUA led Microfinance and
Self –help groups based institutional credit
● NSKFDC, Ministry of Social Justice
● Plethora of loan instruments
Residential Vulnerabilities
● PMAY: MoHUA-led Housing for All
● DAY-NULM led shelters for homeless
Occupational vulnerabilities
● Ministry of Labor and Employment-
uniform Labor code for unorganized sector
workers and access to social security
schemes
● Individual State specific welfare boards for
unorganized workers
● Specific ministry led insurance schemes
Social vulnerabilities
● Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs –
NULM formation of SHGs
● Ministry of Women and Child welfare led
targeted approach on Gender based
welfare programs
● Ministry of Health and Family Welfare led
targeted approach towards health
measures
BUT………
Lack of or no
integrated
approach to
address urban
poverty,
Lack of policy on
urban poverty
alleviation,
Lack of institutional
structure,

4. NO UNIFORM CRITERION FOR
IDENTIFICATION OF URBAN POOR
ENUMERATION No uniform criterion for identification of
urban poor
SECC data of 2011 highlights numbers and has addressed
multi-dimensional nature of urban poverty by quantifying
various vulnerabilities (residential, occupational and social)
Data is static, not updated
 For NULM beneficiaries, states use their own criteria to
identify beneficiaries, ranges from BPL list/ NFSA/Ration
card/ Income criteria / Visible poverty criteria / Self
applications
Eligibility varies from < Rs 27,000 income per annum to <
Rs. 2lakh per annum
No National uniform definition of urban poor

5. NO UNIFORM PRINCIPLE OR PARTICIPATIVE
MECHANISMS TO IDENTIFY URBAN POOR N
No uniform principle for beneficiary
identification by National urban programs
● Ayushman Bharat- through select criteria from
SECC-11 data
● DAY-NULM- urban poor as identified by the
States as per their respective definitions
● PMAY(U)- based on EWS and LIG criterion
(Household income Upto Rs 3 lakh and Rs 6
lakh respectively)
Non participative mechanisms to identify
urban poor
As compared to gram Sabha which actively
participates in identification of poor households,
institutional challenges in urban areas

6. Swachh Bharat Mission
DAY-NULM PMAY
ICDS Urban
Health
Street Vendors
Disjointed data sets across programs and
schemes
No portability of data /benefits across states or
sometimes even cities – linked to domicile status

7. These were Seasonal Migrants - Invisible in the Census and in
national sample surveys… and consequently to administrators
Invisibility of
Urban Migrants

8. Blind spots in data
Migrants – are excluded from most
schemes
Eluded from enumeration at all levels
– no clear estimates
Estimates vary from 100 million to
180 million
Under this pandemic around 30
million went back to their native
state
Short term, Circular migrants trend,
among the poorest of poor

9. Based on NSSO’s 2007-08 survey, a
short-term migrant is one who
‘stayed away from the
village/town for a period of 1
month or more but less than 6
months during the last 365
days for employment or in
search of employment’.
The short-term migration cycle,
however, can be longer than six
months.
The Indian statistical system is not
designed to capture such temporary
migration and as a result policy
makers remain unaware of its extent
and likely increase
SEASONAL / SHORT TERM MIGRATION

10. Migration in India
Key sending states – Bihar, Uttar
Pradesh, Jharkhand Odisha, Rajsthan,
West Bengal and North East States
Key destination states – Kerala, Gujarat,
Maharashtra, Delhi and Karnataka

11. Major Sector employing
Migrants
Construction Sector (40 mn)
Domestic Work (12 mn)
Textile Industry (11 mn)
Brick Kilns (5 mn)
Mines and Quarries
Small Manufacturing
Agriculture and food
processing
Headloading
Hotel Dhabas and Restuarants

12. Name of the Scheme Eligibility Criteria/ Scope of the Scheme Inclusive for
Migrants
AMRUT (Provides adequate sewage networks and
water supply)
The Census data forms the key policy thrust
PM Awas Yojana (In-Situ Slum Redevelopment) Have to be in settled in Notified Slum Settlement
In case, migrants live in notified settlement, domicile and ownership documents
required
National Health Mission
(Primary health centres, other health welfare
provisions )
Primary health care facilities are free
Access to welfare schemes to those domicile document
Integrated Child Development Scheme- Urban
(Cash benefit to pregnant and lactating mothers,
Swadhar Greh, Anganwadi, take home ration and
nutrition schemes)
Only to those women with district domicile, who can produce Ration card and bank
account details to prove this.
DAY- National Urban Livelihood Mission
(Access to skills training, financial inclusion, bank
loans, shelter services, welfare provisions or street
vendors)
SECC data – Slightly more inclusive and Census data
Skills Training requires State domicile of the candidate + domicile of any city
within the State
Defines homeless as -anyone living on pavements, under bridges and on
construction sites
Forming Self help groups, bank linkage, loan applications require domicile
documents
Swachh Bharat Mission- Urban Scope extends to notified and de-notified slums

13. LABOUR MIGRATION – MOBILITY + INFORMALITY
• Undocumented movements and
recruitments
• Urban exclusion is stark and manifest
itself on many fronts – social rights and
urban public provisioning
Mobility
• Informal and segmented market, work is
undocumented and casual
• Recruitment and employment is mediated
through long chain of contractors and
middlemen
Informality
Labour Migration
The twin phenomenon
results in to
vulnerable
movements –
Seasonal, Circular,
long distance, single
male, family based,
distress driven,
forced bonded etc.

14. NO POLICY RESPONSE, NO REGULAR
MECHANISM
Limited portability of social rights
ISMW Act 1979 – single piece of existing legislation,
largely absolute and no machinery for implementation
Dichotomy between urban governance and labour
governance
No means to assert political agency
Low end, hazardous work, largely insecure and irregular
work
Most unskilled with little or no opportunity for
advancement in value chain
Sub-survival wages, less than minimum wages, no social
security
No recourse of legal aid in case of non-payment, fraud
Weak enforcement and regulation of worker’s rights and
entitlements

15. The political class ignores them because they don’t count as votes, especially in the case of
inter-state migrants.
Due to their mobile nature, they don’t find any place in the manifestos of trade unions.
The low interstate portability of identity documents can make it difficult for low-skilled
interstate circular migrants to claim the benefits that they are entitled to under labor laws.
And finally we all ignore them because it is not our concern !!!
The city, the governments (including We all) fails to notice them

16. TO SUM UP
Lack of universal criteria / definition and lack of enumeration of urban poor including
migrants and their settlements in the city, Lack of portability of various schemes
Weak Institutional and Individual capacities of labour department and ULBs to drive
migrants rights urban poverty alleviation in cities
Lack of information among urban poor and migrants about their eligibility and entitlements
Need for an integrated approach to work with the urban poor and migrant workers

17. GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO MIGRANTS ISSUE
The Government response till date as we know has been in terms of
 Arranging and transporting migrants from cities to their homeland
 Increasing MNREGA budget by Rs. 40000 crore to provide work to returnee migrants
 Rs. 50000 crore Job Guarantee Scheme (PM Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan) for migrant workers in
rural areas of six states where most of the migrants have returned
 One nation one ration card to facilitate migrant’s life in cities – (24 States are on the board)
 Affordable Rental Housing Scheme in partnership with private sector
 Urban Employment Guarantee Program is being contemplated
UP / Uttarakhand have set up Workers’ Employment Commission for Migrant
Workers
Bihar Govt has undertaken survey to map skills of migrants to provide them jobs
Maharashtra Govt created job portal to give jobs to local
Passing of labour codes to replace plethora of archaic labour laws, all informal
sector workers earning Rs. 18000 per month to be covered under safety net.
Governments are responding at various levels in various ways – but inadequately

18. REIMAGING LIFE AND LIVELIHOODS FOR MIGRANTS
Setting up Migration Facilitation Centers to enable self-registration, access to social protection and
dispute resolution
Universal access to social rights delinked from domicile status, tenure security or employment status
in cities
Profiling of migrants against safety net and welfare schemes and getting them covered / served as
per illegibility
Identification, enumeration and recognition of migrant settlements across living typologies to ensure
basic public provisioning
Legal responsibility for public provisioning must be shared between the states and employers –
Kerala Guest Workers / Public Rental Housing Scheme
Greater autonomy, resources and responsibility to ULBs to develop contextualized response to
migration – in – flow
All these measures backed by right integrated technological solutions

19. REIMAGING LIFE AND LIVELIHOODS FOR URBAN POOR
Adopting policy on UPA, separate Ministry – nationwide institutional structure, legislative
mandate and right technological solutions
Adopting a unified centrally driven identification and certification of the urban poor to link
them to access the benefits of GOI led welfare schemes and State led welfare benefits.
States can have additional criterion for recognizing urban poor and layers of welfare and
safety net schemes

20. REIMAGING LIVELIHOODS AND LIFE FOR URBAN POOR
Real time application system for urban poor
certification and registration – can be made
on any day of the year on an online portal
and in physical form in designated
offices/centers on any working day
Individuals (Elected Representatives (Member
of Parliament, Member of Legislative
Assembly, and Municipal Councilor or any
government officer) and authorized collectives
of urban poor and NGO to have powers to
recommend any Indian living in urban areas
having family income less than Rs. xxxxxx per
annum for urban poor certification and
registration to designated authority
prescribed by government of India.

21. THANK YOU Dr. Ravikant Joshi