The Safe and Responsible Migration Initiative (SRMI) was established in 2021 to build a more systematic institutional response to labour migration from Jharkhand. Emerging from the experience of the COVID-19 migrant crisis, the initiative sought to move the state’s response beyond emergency assistance towards a longer-term architecture for safer migration, worker protection and social security.

Anchored within the Department of Labour, Employment, Training and Skill Development, Government of Jharkhand, SRMI was implemented through a consortium led by PDAG with PHIA Foundation, the Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID) and the Bharti Institute of Public Policy at the Indian School of Business, with support from Omidyar Network India.

The initiative combined policy and institutional support with interventions at both source and destination. It supported systematic registration and mapping of migrant workers, access to social-protection schemes, awareness on safe migration, grievance redressal and mechanisms for interstate coordination. Safe and Responsible Migration Centres were piloted in source districts including Dumka, Gumla and West Singhbhum, alongside destination-level coordination in Kerala and Leh-Ladakh. A Technical Support Unit within the Labour Department provided policy, technical and programmatic support to help institutionalise these mechanisms.

SRMI also generated a stronger evidence base for migration policy in Jharkhand. This included the Jharkhand Migration Survey 2023, village-level migration registers and committees and data systems intended to give the state a clearer understanding of who migrates, where workers move and the vulnerabilities they encounter across the migration cycle.