3 Migration Platform Economy and the Right to the City in Bangalore
It rained profusely last night in Bangalore; a part of the shanty homes in Whitefield slum, has started being engulfed by the rushing stream from the overpour. Fatima in her early 20s refuses to leave her home though, with her valuables like rice, atta, winter essentials, clothes and documents, she sits on the wooden bed. The bed has been already pushed up with some stones and wood logs to protect it from the incoming water.
Fatima, a domestic help, a migrant worker, wife of a Gig worker, a Muslim woman from West Bengal, does not leave her drowning home. In her mind she hopes and prays for a miracle, a sudden sun-beaming sky or some magic that solves all her problems. Fatima is not alone, there are more than 5 lakhs of migrant workers from Bengal who are surviving in Bangalore city like that, without a proper home, regular electricity and decent sanitation. They don’t have land rights, mostly manage within the gray zone of state-certified legality, work as daily wage laborers, gig workers, and often get questioned about their citizenry. While most of these people are interstate migrants within India and Indian citizens by law, it’s their linguistic and religious identity that makes their claim on citizenship rights suspicious.
1 INTRODUCTION: MIGRANT LABOUR IN THE PLATFORM
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