Safe and Dignified Migration
Building community-rooted systems at scale, informing policy and practice for safer migration.
Explore The Approach
The Migration Reality
Up to 78% of households in southern Odisha send at least one member out for work each year.
Remittances keep families afloat and bring new skills home, but migration is uncertain. Workers face wage theft, poor living conditions, and health risks. Women take on greater care burdens, while millions remain unseen by policy and protection.
Today, community-led systems in Odisha are showing how migration can be safer and more dignified. Governments are building on these lessons, adapting the model within their own programmes to better support migrant workers and their families.
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The Corridor Approach
The Safe and Dignified Migration (SDM) programme ensures that migration becomes a pathway to security and opportunity, not distress. It connects source and destination states through a migration corridor system. Through these corridors, networks of information, protection, and support guide workers and their families through every stage of migration.
Know What Works
Three Pillars of Security
The SDM programme strengthens the social, economic, and workplace security that enables dignified migration.
Occupational Safety
Helping workers make informed decisions, access legal redress, and build skills for safer, better-paying jobs.
Financial Security
Expanding access to banking and savings, promoting remittance management, and strengthening women’s role in household finance.
Social and Emotional Security
Supporting children’s education, strengthening family connections, and linking migrant households to welfare schemes.
In THe Media
Water Secure Gram Panchayat
In Odisha, migrant workers are bringing in as much or more financial resources as the government spends on development activity in some blocks. The income from migration has pulled families out of debt and poverty in several villages, research shows.
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Systems in Motion
The programme builds systems that make migration safer, fairer, and more rewarding for those who rely on it.
Migration Resource Centres
at both source and destination offer information, documentation, and access to services.
Helplines
track grievances, recover lost wages, and provide real-time support to workers.
Digital Registries
in Gram Panchayats record migrant movement, profiles, and welfare access, helping fill critical data gaps.
Mobile Health Clinics
ensure access to medical care at worksites.
Field research and learning
build evidence to improve migration policy and practice.
Grounded in Evidence
Each block tells a different migration story. Our research captures how migrant workers from rural Odisha move, earn, and rebuild.
SPOTLIGHT
Translating Climate, Migration & Adaptation Research into Action
In partnership with the Indian Institute for Human Settlements through the Climate Adaptation Pathways (CLAPS) initiative, we generate evidence on how climate pressures influence migration in Odisha. The collaboration integrates community experience and scientific insight to inform policy and strengthen local systems for safe and dignified migration.
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6,125
migrant workers accessed services.
₹38 lakh
recovered through grievance redressal.
2,684
workers reached through Bandhu Mobile Clinics.
209
grievances resolved through the helpline network.
On the Move
Stories and updates from communities building safer migration systems.
Connected Pathways
Explore other Gram Vikas programmes that help rural communities secure their future.
Water Secure Gram Panchayat
Securing equitable access to water for climate resilience, better health and shared prosperity in rural communities.
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Strategic Extensions
Piloting new ideas that meet emerging needs and grow our organisational capability.
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