Accessible and Affordable Housing for Urban Migrant Workers: A Policy Perspective

Abstract: Migrant workers face hardships in accessing better living conditions such as housing, water supply, and sanitation facilities. This is highly prevalent among construction workers and other manual laborers working in the manufacturing and service sectors. They live in poor conditions and face the threat of displacement and eviction. These people are vulnerable to harassment, especially women laborers and their children who are often the victims of trafficking and beggaring. Migrants also bear harsh conditions like long working hours, the nature and toughness of the work, and are prone to injuries, without any medical benefit. They are neglected and isolated without any social security benefits. This paper aims to study the policy problem related to housing for migrant workers and the challenges in its governance. To this end, this paper analyzes the provisions related to migrant workers in the Urban Housing Policy 2007, National Urban Rental Housing Policy 2015, and social housing policies of different state governments and the various schemes supporting it. To this policy analysis, the paper builds on the appropriate governance arrangement that can build equitable, inclusive, and sustainable policies to address the issues of migrant workers.