Research Projects

The Interstate Migrant Workers' Access to Healthcare Information System (IMWATHIS) is a multidimensional information dissemination mechanism designed to enhance policy responses in the field of public health services for interstate migrant workers in India. The system will be tested in Kerala, the leading pro-migrant policy-making region in India, with the aim of replicating it in other states. Researchers at Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, propose the IMWATHIS to address the unhygienic working and living conditions of migrant workers worldwide and the lack of reliable data on key policy arguments for tangible and time-bound outcomes. The current form of IMWATHIS will be implemented in Kerala, with a broader objective to replicate the system across the country. Kerala is one of the most important migration corridors with substantial human movements, involving millions of individuals. The healthcare system in Kerala has demonstrated better accommodation of migrants' needs, and COVID-19 related arrangements have been rated as impactful engagement. The proposed IMWATHIS is part of the ongoing initiative of Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala's dialogues with public functionaries of the healthcare systems and civil society organizations to initiate a campaign for social inclusion of migrant workers in the state. The methodology includes a baseline quantitative survey to identify healthcare access practices of intestate migrants in Kerala, development of an interventional strategy integrating social, institutional, and technological components for access to healthcare, and testing the interventional strategy using quasi experimental design.