Migrant exodus brought Gurugram to its knees: Economic Survey

Gurugram’s recent migrant exodus has found a mention in the Economic Survey 2025-26 tabled in Parliament as a key example of the importance of the informal labour force.According to the survey, the mass departure of informal sanitation and domestic workers in Gurugram in mid-2025 demonstrated the importance of the informal labour force to urban functioning. From across the city, it was documented how door-to-door garbage collection systems, operated largely by Bengali-speaking migrant workers and other informal employees, collapsed almost overnight as workers left the city amid fear of action by law enforcement. “This left streets and gated communities littered with uncollected waste and rising public health risks. In many neighbourhoods, residents were forced to organise their own waste pickup or hire ad-hoc vehicles in the absence of trained crews. What had been routine, invisible work suddenly became impossible to overlook, underscoring how the smooth functioning of urban systems depends on a labour force that has no formal visibility, yet is structurally indispensable. The disruption extended beyond sanitation, with domestic helpers, cooks and other informal service providers also leaving, leading households to scramble for alternatives and pay sharply higher rates," it stated.It further added that the episode illustrated that informal labour was not a peripheral sector, but a foundational component of everyday urban life, whose absence can quickly translate into deterioration of services and elevated transaction costs for residents and local governments alike. "Policymakers will do well to recognise the importance of the informal urban workforce and institutionally support their integration into the formal economy as well as the socio-economic urban fabric,” said the survey.Similarly, the survey compared Gurugram to Noida and the need to institutionalise the implementation and service delivery mechanism. Million-plus cities may benefit from streamlining institutional frameworks and moving toward more integrated metropolitan governance models. “This is one of the principal differences between Gurugram and Noida after a rain deluge, despite both cities being satellite cities to Delhi. Even otherwise, dedicated urban project units, standardised contracts, and time-bound approvals reduce execution risk, which is often a larger deterrent than financing itself. States play a role here, but cities must own outcomes rather than act as pass-through agencies,” added the report.

Migrant exodus brought Gurugram to its knees: Economic Survey

Underscores importance of informal labour | Says Noida better planned

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Migrant exodus brought Gurugram to its knees: Economic Survey

Underscores importance of informal labour | Says Noida better planned

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

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