From correspondents in Delhi, India, 08:30 PM IST

There are around 600,000 migrant labourers, including 200,000 women, working mainly on construction sites in Delhi, reveals a fresh study that claims that the migration of men was forcing their wives to accompany them.

The report by the voluntary organisation Mobile Creche said that in "84 percent of the cases, the wife migrated because the husband decided to migrate".

"There are around 600,000 migrant workers in Delhi. One out of every three is a woman. Through this study we want to highlight the plight of migrant workers and their helpless children in the national capital," Mridula Bajaj, executive director of Mobile Creche, told IANS Friday.

Though a lot of women are working in Delhi yet there is a huge disparity in their earnings.

"In most instances (68 percent cases), the husband earned more than the wife," the study revealed.

It also found that 86 percent of the families were nuclear families and every single worker has nearly six dependents.

Half of the migrant construction workers interviewed had migrated within the last two years and 25 percent have been staying in Delhi for five years or above.

Nearly 60 percent of migrant construction workers, have migrated from one city to another, while 37 have moved to city from their villages, the study revealed.

Data showed that 33 percent of workers stayed in a construction site between six months and one year, 14 percent stay in a site for less than three months and 15 percent stay between three and six months. A meagre two percent stay beyond a particular site for four years or above.

"The frequent mobility of the families threatens the children's education and also access to government facilities, which settled families usually enjoy," the study mentions.

The study said that agricultural stagnation has always been the backdrop of "distress migration".

Bajaj said that majority of the construction workers in Delhi are from Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)