Ghar se nikal kar gaye the, ghar se hi aa rahe hain aur ghar hi jaa rahe hain.” This line from Bheed (2023) captured a truth that defines India’s migrant workforce.

They leave home in search of economic opportunities, only to remain trapped in a cycle where their labour is utilised but their lives are not valued. The Periodic Labour Force Survey 2020-21 estimated that migrant workers form nearly 35 per cent of India’s urban population and power its development journey. Yet, they enter the public and policy consciousness mainly through moments of suffering and tragedy — the long march home in 2020 during the Covid lockdown and the recent Goa nightclub fire tragedy, where 20 of the 25 killed were migrant workers cooking in a basement kitchen without basic safety protections.

This is not an isolated tragedy. It lies on a continuum of incidents that have marked India’s post-pandemic years: Industrial fires in Gujarat, mine accidents in Jharkhand, brick-kiln collapses in UP, heatstroke deaths at NCR construction sites, tunnel collapses in Uttarakhand and Himachal and the Coromandel Express tragedy in Odisha. Each revealed a cruel picture. Fragmented central and state policies........

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