Unseen and Uncounted: Data Gaps and the Exclusion of SC/ST Female Labour Migrants in India

The data inaccuracy of interstate labour migrants in India’s informal economy exacerbates their vulnerability and precarity of labour due to the exclusion from labour laws and welfare schemes. Moreover, the absence of accurate gender-disaggregated data that recognises their intersectional social identities contributes to the systemic invisibilization of marginalized women within the labour market. This not only erases their uncounted labour—both paid and unpaid—but also dismisses them from the broader narratives of development. With special focus on the SC/ST short-term female labour migrants in India, this article argues that such data gaps and exclusion from policies further entrench the categorical oppression they face in terms of gender, caste, ethnicity and domesticity. This underscores the need for comprehensive, evidence-based data on migrants.