Indian philanthropists set up Migrants Resilience Collaborative platform (MRC)

India’s leading philanthropists have come together to introduce the Migrants Resilience Collaborative (MRC), India’s largest grassroots-led multi-stakeholder collaborative of nonprofit, philanthropic, and private sector actors committed to ensuring safety, security, and mobility for vulnerable migrant families across India.

Launched by Ashif Shaikh, co-Founder, Jan Sahas, a leading NGO who that been working with migrant communities over the last decade to ensure their social protection and safe migration, the MRC has an ambitious goal to reach out to over 10 million migrant workers and their families in 100 districts and cities pan India over the next 5 years.

Committed to delivering social security entitlement, providing access to responsible recruitment and strengthening tracking, worker protections, welfare and redressal, the Steering Committee comprising of some of India’s leading philanthropists and leaders with deep experience across sectors like Ashif Shaikh (Co-Founder Jan Sahas), Vidya Shah (CEO, EdelGive Foundation), Anu Aga (Former Chairperson, Thermax Limited), Rati Forbes (Director, Forbes Marshall Group), Arun Maira (Former Member, Planning Commission of India), Kumar Gera (Chairman, Gera Developments Pvt. Ltd), Lalita Vadia (former migrant worker) will lead and guide MRC’s strategy.

Jan Sahas, along with strategic partners – Global Development Incubator and EdelGive Foundation, is working with a wide range of partners and advisors to strengthen strategies for MRC to implement. The strategic partners will provide support to the collaborative on Collaborative strategy, design and governance; program strategy and design; fundraising, external stakeholder engagement and partner management.

“While the civil society, philanthropies, private and Govt. sector coalesced to provide immediate relief to migrant community, there is a crying need to transition from relief to focusing on core needs of migrant workers to build medium to long-term resilience as the country prepares for the long road to economic recovery and the possibility of multiple waves of COVID. MRC is an endeavour to address these needs,” said Ashif Shaikh.

“In the wake of the on-going pandemic, it has become critical to address the long road of recovery and resilience we foresee, particularly for communities such as migrant workers that are most vulnerable to such calamities. Through the Migrant Resilience Collaborative, we hope to enable access to entitlements and responsible recruitment for our migrant workers, alongside strengthening initiatives towards their welfare and protection. At EdelGive Foundation, we are committed to supporting the collaborative and urge others to join us in our mission to support this community further,” said Vidya Shah.

“Economists consider workers as commodities in ‘labour markets’ to be bought and sold for a price. And employers sadly treat them only as resources—to be used and discarded when not required. This must change because workers are human beings with citizens’ rights in society,” said Arun Maira.

In last few months, Jan Sahas has facilitated relief for more than 1 million families across 19 states, working with 40 CBOs and 40 donors; contributed 1 million of the 4 million worker connects for Govt’s skill mapping initiative and facilitated BOCW registration for over 58,000 workers.

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