From unpaid care work to the lowest-paid factory jobs, labour of migrant women is unacknowledged. With the home becoming an extension of work, over time this bodily overuse leads to the inability to work, produce, care, or even sustain itself Ambuja Raj Chulha or earthen hearths in Perumbavoor where women cook food. The fire is fed with spare wood from the plywood factories. Pic credit: Ambuja Raj Look inside, what we live inside is barely even a room. You really think cleani

South Asians form a bulk of Saudi Arabia's low-wage workforce and any news around the country's labour norms are tracked keenly, including the recent fake news around the employer-tied visa sponsorship of workers . Namrata Raju

The migration of women from coastal Odisha to other states over the years reflects the thousands of livelihoods lost to cyclones, floods, and sea erosion. The women who migrate for work risk everything --- they travel far from their community, uprooting themselves from their culture, language and families. Will Odisha government’s newly launched mobile migrant resource centre be able to arrest distress migration? Shobha Surin Nolia Nuagaon, a fishing village in Ganjam distric

Cases fuelled by cramped, unsanitary living conditions in factory-provided accommodations, and also visits to villages, say campaigners and doctors. Migrants seek Hindi-language medical camps. Prasanth Shanmugasundaram A stretch of asbestos-roofed coir factory migrant labour shelters near Kinathukadavu area in Coimbatore district. Prasanth Shanmugasundaram/The Migration Story. COIMBATORE, Tamil Nadu:  Arjun migrated from Bhaisamau village near Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, five yea

The government’s skill development schemes encouraged youth in Raichur to migrate to cities for ‘better jobs’, but they only found low-paid work in urban areas and have been returning to their villages ? Vishaka V. Warrier Supriya RoyChowdhury An industrial skills training centre for rural youth in Muranpur village, Raichur district, Karnataka. Vishaka V. Warrier/The Migration Story i “I was really excited about working in Bangalore. I went there to attend a sales managemen

At a Mumbai convening, campaigners speak about the many welfare schemes available for migrants that exist mostly on paper, as accessing them is extremely difficult due to lack of awareness and cumbersome documentation. Hepzi Anthony

Understanding India’s migration patterns is critical but a re there any systematic ways to measure and record the counts, reasons, destinations, and timing of movement to understand migration patterns? And why should citizens and governments care? Yashita Singh Migrant women working and living in a construction site in Bengaluru. Pic credit: Yashita Singh In India, migration is impossible to ignore and has been part of our culture . While the Census says most migration is due

Working up to 12 hours a day for meagre wages, labourers from Bihar, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh operate looms in Bengaluru. But behind every metre of fabric lies a story of exploitation — unsafe working conditions, long shifts, and lives spent in debt and silence. Miriam Rachel Mathew Karuna Sarasuwathi Kumarappan Grishma Mate Lavanya M Nandi Mugdha Mathur Deekshith R Pai

The closure of a thermal plant disrupted small businesses in Odisha’s Talcher, serving as a cautionary tale for what lies ahead for regions dependent on fossil fuels if India doesn’t start work on a post-coal future now Roli Srivastava The shuttered storefronts near the gate of the thermal plant that shut down in 2021, in Talcher, Odisha. Roli Srivastava/The Migration Story TALCHER, Odisha: Roadside shops selling steaming hot chai and samosas were among the first to down thei

Tribal villages in Similipal Tiger Reserve have for decades been relocated outside the reserve to protect its wildlife, but 43 gram sabhas are opposing these evictions and demanding development Nidhi Jamwal “In our village in the forest, we were kings,” recalls Arjun Murmu, whose family had to relocate outside the Similipal Tiger Reserve’s core area. Nidhi Jamwal/The Migration Story SIMILIPAL TIGER RESERVE, Odisha:  “Is it possible to go back to our village in the forest?” as

Human-wildlife conflicts are intensifying globally. In the world’s most populous nation, managing the overlapping pressures of population growth, extreme weather, energy transition, and shifting wildlife patterns has never been more urgent. These challenges demand strategic and nuanced conservation measures. The Migration Story and Climate Narrative Hub anchored by Dasra are organizing a two-day, in-person workshop for regional journalists in Nagpur that seeks to strengthen c

Shubham Sabar was working at  a construction site in Bengaluru when he learned he had cracked NEET exam. As he prepares to join the medical college in Odisha, the 19-year-old's family celebrates, but also worries about the years ahead without his income Rakhi Ghosh

Journalist-writer Basharat Peer's op-ed in New York Times in 2020 inspired the film Homebound, which is now India's official entry to the Oscars. On this podcast he talks about his connection with the story and the families of the two friends, now immortalised on the big screen Roli Srivastava

Increasing plastic pollution in the sea has added to the many challenges faced by  traditional fishers, forcing them to migrate from a Nature-based livelihood to  daily-wage and blue-collar jobs Ravleen Kaur  Varsha Singh Jisha Elizabeth Nandkumar Pawar casting his net in the Thane Creek, Navi Mumbai Pic Courtesy: NandKumar Pawar   GENEVA/BHARUCH/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  ‘ Galyat saakli sonyachi, hi pori konachi ’ goes a foot-tapping Hindi film chartbuster from 1991, which featur

Over 200 factories in Khayala in West Delhi have shut and about 15,000 migrant workers have lost work following allegations of them being illegal Bangaldeshi migrants and Rohingyas. Omair Farooq Vipul Kumar

More than 1,000 migrant workers gather together every year in Bengaluru for a harvest festival that celebrates their Adivasi culture and helps them forget about their hardships for a while Rosey Mukherjee Women from the Oraon tribe dance to the beat of a drum to celebrate the Karam festival at St. Joseph’s University, Bengaluru. Rosey Mukherjee/The Migration Story BENGALURU, Karnataka: For David Baxla, the harvest festival of Karam is not just a celebration – it is a connecti

Bhiwandi’s powerloom sector, previously battered by demonetisation, GST and Covid, could take another beating from the U.S. tariffs, which is worrying migrant workers and factory owners Hepzi Anthony Girijesh Prajapati, 25, from U.P.’s Gorakhpur district, hopes he can save enough money from working in Bhiwandi and eventually move to Dubai. Rukmani Pujari/The Migration Story  BHIWANDI, Maharashtra:  This city of powerloom factories wasn’t Qadir Sheikh’s first choice. He had wo

A chance interaction with a small child on a rainy evening has a researcher weigh in on challenges of survival and the lived reality of...

In Bihar, many farmers of makhana or the global “superfood,” leave for cities to make up for the shortfall in agricultural income.  Shaba Manzoor Nuzhat Khan Large lotus leaves spread across a narrow water channel running along the fields in Murli Basantpur village, Saharsa. Shaba Manzoor/The Migration Story SAHARSA, Bihar:  Every year, when the makhana, or foxnut, season draws to a close in the ponds and wetlands of Bihar, several men and women employed in the arduous farmin

Thousands of diamond workers have left Surat as the processing hub grapples with sanctions on Russia, falling exports, and U.S. tariffs. Bansari Kamdar A worker at a diamond workshop in Surat. File picture SURAT, Gujarat: Bapu Ganpat, a diamond polisher from Una, Gujarat, lived in Surat for more than two decades, scraping together enough to support his two children. Over the last five months, after his monthly wages were halved, rent, school fees, and daily expenses had eaten