28:T490,

This article traces contemporary debates on labour regulation related to state-led labour laws and voluntary compliance in a macro context of de-regulation, dilution of workers’ rights and deterioration of labour relations, which have resulted in a decline in migrant workers’ access to trade unions. It argues that non-compliance of state-led labour regulations and compliance of voluntary governance exacerbated the precarity and well-being of migrant workers. It then explores the role of two civil society organisations (CSOs) in southern India—Gram Vaani and Radio Active 90.4—that use technology in redressing migrant workers’ grievances. In the empirical context of the pandemic, when both state and state-led labour laws and voluntary compliance failed in protecting workers’ rights, the article finds that CSOs have emerged as significant actors in bridging the gap between trade unions and migrant workers. The paper critically examines the strengths and limitations of such collaboration and advocates union revitalisation and coalition strategies to strengthen the voice of migrant labour in a post-pandemic world of work and employment.

29:T4b8,

Migrant subjectivities, experiences and agency have not received the attention needed within development studies discussions on migration, and gender remains to be mainstreamed within understandings of migration. This article attempts to contribute towards bridging these gaps by outlining the findings of a study that explored sociality amongst migrant domestic workers in Kolkata. It outlines experiences of living the migrant identity amongst women migrating from rural West Bengal to Kolkata as well as forms of sociality they engage in at the level of the everyday. Socialities with their employers at the site of paid domestic work allow them to lay claims to the city by drawing on identities based in the Partition of India, 1947. Drawing on the concepts of ‘beings’ from Amartya Sen’s capability approach and of the ‘right to the city’, originally formulated by Henri Lefebvre, the article captures two significant questions emerging from these socialities: those of identity and self, and relationship with the city. It further shows the interrelation between these two frameworks that becomes apparent in the context of what the above socialities imply for the women in the study.

2a:T467,

Internal migration, nearly four times more than the migration across national boundaries, accounts for the largest human movements in the world. In context of agrarian distress, circular migration between the rural and the urban is a common livelihood trajectory of at least 100 million Indians. It is known that circular migrants face numerous economic and social challenges of survival in the city. This article focuses on gendered experiences and strategies adopted by migrants for inclusion in informal settlements in Bengaluru. Drawing on the concepts of social exclusion, inclusion and agency, we use household surveys (n = 1,109) in 30 informal settlements in Bengaluru in 2016, semi-structured interviews (n = 20) in one informal settlement, key informant interviews (n = 5) and participant observation in events and meetings in the city to illustrate individual and collective strategies used by diverse groups and the ways in which these are gendered. We find that the length of stay in the settlement is a crucial determinant of social inclusion in the city.

2b:T562,