Migrants are busy people at festival time. It is the season of opportunity tied to the razzmatazz of celebration: the food, theatre, song, dance and artistry that goes in the making of idols and pandals, in the crafting of lights, toys and decoration.
We go back in time to bring you our reportage on the migrant during festival time. In different states, during different festivals, celebrating it or the opportunity it brings, of earning.
Read the latest edition of our newsletter, TMS Dispatch, here : themigrationstory.substack.c…
Seventy years ago, Dalit labourers from the dry districts of northern Tamil Nadu travelled to lay the roads, plant the gardens and build the famed Rock Garden of India’s first planned city. Their grandchildren speak Hindi, call Chandigarh home, and still carry the names clerks wrote down for their grandparents.
Read the full story by Nacchinarkkiniyan M.
themigrationstory.com/post/t…
Two months after the devastating flash floods in Nepal, migrant workers from Bihar who survived the disaster wonder if India or Nepal will compensate them for the losses they experienced.
Read this ground report from Bihar by @jyotiyadaav :
themigrationstory.com/post/b…
Bengaluru garment workers suffer in silence as employers violate labour laws preventing discrimination
Read the detailed report by Maitreyee Boruah
themigrationstory.com/post/s…
The Migration Story retweeted
I report for the @TMigrationStory on the ripple effects of the August 26 #NepalFloods suffered by the families of Assamese immigrants working in the country's hydropower projects, and their lives in Assam's hinterland.
themigrationstory.com/post/i…
Through our monthly newsletter 'The Migration Story Dispatch', we look at how cities change with migrants moving in. And how villages change with them moving out.
Here is the latest edition : themigrationstory.substack.c…
“I feel guilty to celebrate my survival.”
When Nepal’s August 26 flash floods swept through hydropower projects, Assamese worker Soneswar Nazary escaped with his life. Two fellow workers were still missing.
For Soneswar, coming home was not a complete relief. 🧵
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Why did these workers travel to Nepal?
For many families in rural Assam, agriculture offers uncertain income and local jobs are scarce. Nepal’s hydropower projects offered wages of 15,000–25,000 rupees a month.
As one survivor put it, hunger leaves workers with few choices.
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In Nam Doboka, Gautam Das, who survived the Nepal flood, said he had lost everything. “All my documents, money, dreams and livelihood are gone with the flood,” he said. He is now back to working as a daily wager, painting people’s homes for 500 rupees a day. “This is too little for me, but I would not dare go to Nepal again,” he said.
However, not everyone is convinced by Gautam’s resolution. “The poor have no choice,” said Elphison. “There’s nothing more dangerous than hunger. We will go again if we do not find work here.”
Read the full report by Arshad Ahmed: themigrationstory.com/post/i…
Recurrent floods in the Brahmaputra’s floodplains have disrupted nature-based livelihoods and forced men to migrate for work, while women have turned to non-farm work such as weaving and tailoring to earn additional incomes.
Read the ground report by @theplainjain : themigrationstory.com/post/w…
Mangolpuri, a resettlement colony in northwest Delhi, is a maze of narrow lanes and closely packed houses. Most were built on 25-square-yard plots allotted to poor families as Delhi expanded in the 1970s. As families grew, many houses added floors, with the upper ones often rented out to families who came to the city looking for work.
But amid the ongoing SIR process, over 80 per cent from the migrant families residing here have been marked as permanently shifted in the revised voter lists despite having voted in earlier polls.
Read the full ground report by Sanskriti Talwar : themigrationstory.com/post/a…
In this video, we look at 3 water conservation success stories and the communities that made them possible. India is a water-stressed country, and with the 2026 monsoon being drier than normal, more than 50% of the country is facing drought conditions. Can community efforts scale beyond the local impact to a more national solution?
Watch the full video by @sanshey , here : youtube.com/watch?v=KhMHtu03…
Migrant workers face three times the risk of being trapped in situations of bonded labour, which is considered a modern form of slavery. A network in Odisha is helping rescue victims of these exploitative conditions to find freedom and livelihoods.
Watch the full video report by @RakhiGh06161997
Video producer : @sanshey
youtube.com/watch?v=wLqR3QHd…