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Pic Credit: Roli Srivastava

Reportage

31 October2025

‘Missed Opportunity’: Why a polluted Indian town awaits a thermal plant’s revival

The closure of a thermal plant disrupted small businesses in Odisha’s Talcher, serving as a cautionary tale for what lies ahead for regions dependent on fossil fuels if India doesn’t start work on a post-coal future now

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Roli Srivastava

Analysis

1 November 2025

Understanding migration through public datasets

Understanding India’s migration patterns is critical but are there any systematic ways to measure and record the counts, reasons, destinations, and timing of movement to understand migration patterns? And why should citizens and governments care?

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Pic Credit: Yashita SIngh

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Video

31 October 2025

Inside Bengaluru’s Powerlooms: Migrant Lives Running on Shifts and Dust

Working up to 12 hours a day for meagre wages, labourers from Bihar, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh operate looms in Bengaluru. But behind every metre of fabric lies a story of exploitation — unsafe working conditions, long shifts, and lives spent in debt and silence.

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Miriam Rachel Mathew

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Karuna Sarasuwathi Kumarappan

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Lavanya M Nandi

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Deekshith R Pai

Reportage

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Pic Credit: Nidhi Jamwal

Reportage

28 October2025

‘We will develop our forest villages’: Adivasis in Odisha’s forests say no to relocation and forced migration

Tribal villages in Similipal Tiger Reserve have for decades been relocated outside the reserve to protect its wildlife, but 43 gram sabhas are opposing these evictions and demanding development

Nidhi Jamwal

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Pic Credit: NandKumar Pawar

Reportage

24 October2025

Killing fish, choking livelihoods: the scourge of plastic

Increasing plastic pollution in the sea has added to the many challenges faced by traditional fishers, forcing them to migrate from a Nature-based livelihood to daily-wage and blue-collar jobs

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Jisha Elizabeth

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Podcast

24 October 2025

The Story Behind 'Homebound'

Journalist-writer Basharat Peer's op-ed in New York Times in 2020 inspired the film Homebound, which is now India's official entry to the Oscars. On this podcast he talks about his connection with the story and the families of the two friends, now immortalised on the big screen

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Roli Srivastava

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Video

24 October 2025

From migrant worker to medical student: a tribal boy from Odisha scripts history

Shubham Sabar was working at a construction site in Bengaluru when he learned he had cracked NEET exam. As he prepares to join the medical college in Odisha, the 19-year-old's family celebrates, but also worries about the years ahead without his income

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Pic Credit: Rosey Mukherjee

Reportage

14 October2025

‘Karam reminds us of who we are’: A festival helps Bengaluru’s Adivasi migrants feel at home

More than 1,000 migrant workers gather together every year in Bengaluru for a harvest festival that celebrates their Adivasi culture and helps them forget about their hardships for a while

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Rosey Mukherjee

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Video

14 October 2025

'Jeans Jihad': How communal politics pushed UP's migrant tailors out of Delhi

Over 200 factories in Khayala in West Delhi have shut and about 15,000 migrant workers have lost work following allegations of them being illegal Bangaldeshi migrants and Rohingyas.

Pic Credit: Rukmani Pujari

Reportage

08 October2025

Once ‘Manchester of India’, Bhiwandi’s textile mills lose their thread

Bhiwandi’s powerloom sector, previously battered by demonetisation, GST and Covid, could take another beating from the U.S. tariffs, which is worrying migrant workers and factory owners

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Analysis

08 October 2025

The Girl on the Flyover

A chance interaction with a small child on a rainy evening has a researcher weigh in on challenges of survival and the lived reality of exclusion of migrant workers in urban India

Dr Madhusudan Nag

Dr Madhusudan Nag

Analysis
& Data

2 3 4 5

Reportage

03 October 2025

How Makhana farmers split their time between muddy ponds & the city

In Bihar, many farmers of makhana or the global “superfood,” leave for cities to make up for the shortfall in agricultural income.

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Pic credit: Shaba Manzoor

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Reportage

26 September 2025

Migrants return home as Diamond City loses lustre

Thousands of diamond workers have left Surat as the processing hub grapples with sanctions on Russia, falling exports, and U.S. tariffs.

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Podcast & Videos

2

In

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Pic credit: Representational image (Photo: iStock)

Reportage

24 February 2025

Migration Bulletin

Social security and healthcare benefits for the growing gig sector

The Migration Bulletin is a monthly round-up that compiles migration news from across various publications. In the sixth edition, we look at the Budget 2025, the clamp down on undocumented immigrants in the US and UK and more.

Analysis

16 June 2025

The everyday servitude of domestic workers

Domestic workers, largely women, go from their family to another family system to slave. There is an urgent need to regulate their wages, working hours and working conditions

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Pic credit: Sarayu Subramanian

Pic credit: Sarayu Subramanian

Analysis

16 June 2025

The everyday servitude of domestic workers

Domestic workers, largely women, go from their family to another family system to slave. There is an urgent need to regulate their wages, working hours and working conditions

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Podcast

16 June 2025

The big India melt: from heat stress to the politics of shade

As heatwaves sweep across large swathes of India, Aditya Valiathan Pillai, a doctoral researcher at King’s College London discusses Heat Action Plans of cities and the politics of shade

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Pic Credit: Prashant Nakwe

Analysis

16 April 2025

From Crisis to Coordination: Lessons from Jharkhand’s Journey

One of India’s poorest state showed enterprise and initiative to bring back its workers home amid a raging pandemic

Bhargabi

Pic credit: Representational image (Photo: iStock)

Reportage

27 January 2025

Migration Bulletin

Are Migrants Returning Home Due To Improved Economic Opportunity?

The Migration Bulletin is a monthly round-up that captures issues related to migration that have been reported on various media platforms. In its fifth edition, we look at the Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister’s report noting the slowdown in domestic migration and the gender pay gap in Southern India.

As Brick Kilns Close For Cleaner Air, A Race For Jobs

With no safety nets as brick kilns shut shop around New Delhi to meet emission norms, workers return to villages, lean on traditional networks to find new work

Esha Roy

Up Against The Wall

Moulding, firing and baking: despite harsh and exploitative work conditions, India's brick kiln workers cling to jobs in a sector that faces imminent closure

Tanmoy Bhaduri, Anumeha Yadav, Esha Roy

12 July 2024

Heirloom seeds take root, arrest migration from Madhya Pradesh village

As a shift to heirloom seeds and indigenous crops improves agricultural yields in Jhabua district, farmers are becoming less dependent on migration for work in cities in neighbouring Rajasthan and Gujarat

Aishwarya Mohanty

02 August 2024

Solar pumps lift salt farmers out of diesel-fuelled poverty

Agarias, the traditional salt farmers of the Little Rann of Kutch, shift to renewable energy to produce salt, breaking free from decades of debt

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Podcast

06 September 2024

'Climate action must be mindful of zero poverty and zero hunger goals'

Climate scientist Anjan Ray unpacks India’s clean energy goals, the impact of green energy projects on local communities and what the future holds for the country's most vulnerable.

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Roli Srivastava

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Collage credit: Moina Rohira

09 August 2024

The invisible victims of Pune’s Porsche crash

Migrant workers in the city’s bars and pubs have become jobless following government action against places serving liquor

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Varsha Torgalkar

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07 August 2024

Lost in the Landslide

Wayanad has an estimated 100,000 migrant workers, who were amongst the most impacted in the recent landslide.

Prakhar Dobhal, Swara Garge, Jais Jacob

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Analysis & Data

05 August 2024

The Worry About Warming Waters

Millions of people in India live near the coastline, many depend on the fisheries sector for a living, and they will be the worst hit as marine heatwaves become more frequent.

Rishabh Shrivastav

Rishabh Shrivastava, Nidhi Jamwal, Naveen Kumar Manoharan

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Pic credit: The Migration Story

Analysis & Data

23 August 2024

THE CLIMATE CLEAN-UP DEBATE

Poor countries bear the unequal burden of the impact of climate change, which is at the centre of the Global North versus Global South debate, which was a rare central theme in this year’s economic survey

Rishabh Shrivastav

Rishabh Shrivastava

In Focus

2 3

5 July 2024

As brick kilns close for cleaner air, a race for jobs

With no safety nets as brick kilns shut shop around New Delhi to meet emission norms, workers return to villages, lean on traditional networks to find new work

In a Delhi heat ward,
a lonely battle for life

Unconscious, frothing in the mouth, holding ice packs: Migrant workers are the biggest casualty of India's worst heatwave

Anumeha Yadav

28 June 2024

No shade, no water: The fatal flaws in India’s heat management

To protect street vendors and urban workers from the impact of rising heat, Indian cities need inclusive policies– from legally binding heat action plans, cooling centres to special funds and awareness drives

Photo: Vinit Gupta

Essay
20 June 2024

The persuasive cinema of exodus

The theme of large-scale human exodus is one of the most prevalent and persuasive in world cinema, ubiquitous in the international festival circuit these days.

Namrata Joshi / The New Indian Express

Images courtesy: Ranabir Das

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