Published Paper Details:

India is a country of villages and small town as 68.9 per cent of the population lives in 6.40 lakhs villages. At the same time, 450 million i.e. 37% of the population are internal migrants as per 2011 census. In developing country like India, migration mostly take place not due to pull forces as usually seen in case of developed countries, but because of factors like poverty, unemployment and natural calamities. Migration is not choice but it is necessary, so it becomes essential for the destined state to accommodate migrant workers when these persons need it. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar account for the highest outflow of migration. These migrant workers have played a key role in the development of the nation by sheer sweat of their labour but these very nation builders sought a little assistance from the country in their quest to reach their humble abodes. In India internal migration has never been taken seriously by the central and state government. Migrant workers have no residential security and are compelled to live and work in crowded slums and unauthorized public lands with unsatisfactory civic amenities and access to basic services, and they undergo repeated displacement. For the first time, COVID -19 crises unfolded the real face of centre-state relationship and brought migration to the centre stage. Though government has taken cognisance of the issue and announced financial measures to contain the impact on the migrant workers but there is an urgent need to review of national legal, regulatory and institutional concerns in resettlement and rehabilitation of migrant labourers. Time has come when both centre and state government need to prioritize the internal migrant issues. In order to deal with internal migrant issue, centre is required to decentralise political and economic power to state with greater decision making capacity.