[Reader-list] first posting: Migrant workers in Chennai's IT corridor

[venkat t]

hello all,

At the outset let me thank the Sarai community for maintaining this
level of informality. It is really helpful for young Fellows like me
and eases communication flow. I am Venkat, a post graduate in
sociology from the University of Madras. I am currently working as a
research assistant to an assistant professor in MIDS Chennai. My
proposal for this fellowship at Sarai aims to study the migrant
workers employed in the IT corridor in Chennai.
Indian has been pushed into the high growth trajectory. There is
phenomenal economic activity all around us. At the forefront of this
economic boom is the service sector, more precisely the Information
Technology (IT) and the IT enabled services (ITES) sectors. There has
been an inflow of huge foreign capital as well as a high degree Indian
investment into these sectors in order to tap the advantages of a
large, 'cheap', English educated, skilled workforce. In order to
sustain this growth and to facilitate a constant inflow of capital
into this sector the southern states of India have been racing against
each other to provide international standard infrastructure facilities
to the companies. While Bangalore is recognised as the cyber capital
of India, Hyderabad and Chennai have been fasting growing IT hubs
keenly contesting for the title. In Chennai the driving force for
attracting investments into the IT sector is the IT expressway been
constructed by TNRDC (Tamil Nadu Road Development Company). This is a
22 Km stretch of the Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) which is being
developed into a world class, state of the art, 6 lane express way.
Along side this express way numerous companies as well as
entertainment zones, eat outs and residential complexes are being
developed. This space is called the IT Corridor.

The grandiose project has meant that there has been feverish
construction activity not just on the 6 lane expressway, more so on
the lands adjoining the expressway. There has been a large inflow of
migrant workers from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and even
some central Indian states like Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Bihar.
The agrarian crisis in these states and the lack of employment has
pushed these people to travel hundreds of miles in search of work. The
migrant workers are vulnerable groups, who have little social or
cultural security, not to speak of economic security. The low rates of
literacy and the ignorance of the local language also makes them easy
prey to exploitation. It is these people who are building the sky
scrappers and glass houses that is driving the Indian Dream.

This study looks at the lifestyles of these migrant workers. In what
conditions do the migrant workers work and live? How do they survive
in the alien places far away from home? What is the condition of the
children of the workers? What do they envision for themselves as the
jobs on the IT corridor drains up leaving them as part of the urban
unemployed poor?

International conventions and Indian legislations strive to protect
migrant workers from exploitation. Regulations and guidelines govern
the movement of migrant workers requiring registration by contractors.
Minimum wages laws and other social security measures are extended to
the migrant workers. How effective are these laws? What are the terms
in which they are contracted? What is the web of interrelationships
between the workers, contractors, business houses and the state? These
are some of the questions this research aims to unravel.

The study would use ethnographic methods and juxtapose the condition
of the migrant labour against the national dream that they are
building.  Apart from interviews with the migrant workers, the study
would include interviews with the officials of TNRDC, contractors, and
NGOs working among the migrant workers.

Please write to me for clarifications and provide me with your
suggestions and comments to make it more meaningful and relevant.

Thank you

T.venkat