EOI - Developing Web Software and Mobile Application Under Pravasi Bandhu Program

More than 5 million people infected with Covid-19. India is second highest country in the World. Peak is still unknown. 82,000 people have already died. Hundreds of doctors, nurses and health workers have also perished. People in poor states with weak health infrastructure are going to suffer more. No vaccination in sight till at least middle of 2021.

The situation of migrants in India is one such which speaks the tales of the invisible workforce who have become visible with multiple challenges to survive at this time of COVID-19 and countrywide lockdown. The union government had abruptly clamped down a nationwide lockdown to arrest the Covid-19 pandemic on 24th March 2020. Unfortunately, the lockdown turned out to be a terrible blow to the migrant population. Lacking job and money, hundreds of thousands of migrants walked 100s of kilometres to reach to their villages. As per the data more than 200 migrant workers died on the way and that 630 migrants were injured in road mishaps.

A number of studies have been conducted in the aftermath of the lockdown, revealing shocking details of the precarious state of the workers. A rapid assessment conducted by Jan Sahas, have found that 17% of those interviewed do not have a Jan Dhan Account excluding them of any benefit from the financial package announced by the Government during Covid-19. The assessment further states that around 94% of the construction labourers do not have BOCW cards. A study done by Caritas India during pandemic found that 95% migrant workers have lost all means of livelihood, 40% migrant workers have not received benefits of PDS, 69% migrant workers need immediate work/wage labour support. More than 10 million migrant workers have gone back from cities to their villages without job and money. A study done by Caritas India in Kerala (has the highest Human Development Index in India) revealed that none of the migrant workers were enrolled under Interstate migrant workers welfare schemes and only 23% were enrolled under the health insurance of Kerala government. The 95.3% migrant workers are not part of any trade union or associations. 

An estimated 5-6 million migrants are on the move every year in India, travelling from some of its poorer states to newly emerging urban zones. Various studies estimate the number of migrants between 200 to 300 million, comprising of inter-state and intra-state. Census 2011 estimated these migrants to be 177.5 million. According to International Labour Organisation (ILO), about 400 million people working in the informal economy in India are at risk of falling deeper into poverty due to the coronavirus crisis (The Economic Times, April 8, 2020). The National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS) reports around 92 percent of India’s workforce with informal employment are substantially drawn from migrant labour (NCEUS, 2007). About 30 percent of migrant workers are working as casual workers, are therefore quite vulnerable to the vagaries of the labour market and lack social protection. Only 35 percent of migrant workers are employed as regular/salaried workers (NSSO, 2010).

About CARITAS India

Caritas India a Non-Government organization engaged in the social development of poor and marginalized communities in India. Caritas India is the official Social Wing of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) for social concern and human development. It was established in 1960 with its headquarters in the CBCI Centre, New Delhi. (https://caritasindia.org). To address the challenges of migrant workers, Caritas India under Pravasi Bandhu program will connect the source and destination states. Caritas India along with 9 partners in 8 states will implement Pravasi Bandhu Program. The program will focus to create awareness, train the potential migrant workers, share information and register them. At destinations, migrant workers will be provided support through migrant resource centres. This will strongly work towards bridging gap between source and destination.

The project will cover total 21506 internal migrant workers from destination (4 states) and total population coverage 121055 at the source (4 states) states. 

Intervention States : Three states at Source – Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan

Five states at Destination: Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, Goa, Gandhinagar

Objective of the assignment:

The objectives of developing web software are:

• To develop a robust online centralized data management software with an objective to provide relevant information to end users on time
• To take a quick decision without any delay while maintaining high data security
• To create an independent and authentic database on migrant workers which will be accessible to all who have the permission of using the data 
• To share the data with the like-minded organizations and government as per the interventions and program need

To download the full ToR, click here