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(C): Unsplash
The new structure of overseas migration in India is being marketed as a digital upgrade that will simplify the clearance procedure, monitor workers, and enhance the safety of people seeking employment in other nations. But for many low‑wage migrant workers, these digital check posts risk creating new chokepoints controlled by recruiters, brokers, and officials who already profit from opaque systems. In the absence of robust data-protection policies, open grievance processes, and actual worker consent, sensitive personal and biometric information will be used to spy on, blacklist or apply coercive measures. This techno-bureaucratic power-low accountability combination can enhance exploitation rather than eliminate it, particularly when it comes to women workers, domestic workers and high-risk relatively low-paying positions, such as construction and shipping.
Digital Checkposts Without Safeguards
- The centralization of the bill on portals, mandatory registrations and clearances puts the power in the hands of the middlemen who have the power to stop or slow down the applications of workers.
- Those workers who are less digital or language-skilled can be even more reliant on agents, paying more money and experiencing document fraud or manipulation.
Data Misuse And Surveillance Risks
- Gathering passports, contracts, biometrics and travel history with no evident boundaries on retention as well as without a separate audit opens profiling and monitoring.
- The information that is shared among agencies and other foreign employers when breached or used improperly may lead to workers being exposed to identity theft, blacklisting, or retaliation due to making complaints.
Read more: Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025 — Could It End India’s Work-After-Hours Culture?
Exploitation May Intensify, Not Decline
- Compliance burdens are often imposed on workers, rather than on abusive recruiters and employers since workers may be fined or denied clearance in case paperwork is not completed.
- Weak penalties towards unlawful recruitment costs, replacements of contracts, and stealing of wages implies that the same mercenary groups are working within the veil of technology.
What Worker‑Centric Reform Should Do
- Inject clear data-protection rights, independent audit and informed consent into all the digital processes where employees can view, rectify, or remove their information.
- Combine pair digital with firm control over recruiters, open contracts in local languages, and available complaint networks in the embassies and labour departments.
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