A symposium was organized under the leadership of St. Xavier’s Social Service Society on 25^th of February 2023 between 2 pm to 5.30 pm at SXSSS for the organizations working with the migrants across Ahmedabad city. The main objective of the symposium was to understand the numerous problems and challenges faced by the migrant laborers belonging to unorganized sector and see if some of the like-minded organizations can form a NETWORK -come together on one platform to address the issues of migrants as a collective force. Heads and representatives of seven NGOs working with street vendors, workers at construction sites, factory workers, domestic workers, daily wage laborers, waste pickers and Safai Karmchari were present for the august gathering.

The symposium was attended by 92 participants who included the heads of the NGOs, their key staff members and migrant workers belonging to different sectors. Fr. Isaac Rumao –Director of SXSSS gave the brief introduction about the importance of Networking and collaborating with one another in the present scenario of the Migrant workers. The speakers from different sectors raised their concerns regarding the social insecurity, exploitation of laborers at the work place, poor and unsafe working conditions, unutilized welfare schemes and lack of minimum wages. They also emphasized the need to work together. This meeting being the first of its kind has helped us to get to know each other’s expertise, areas of work and what we can do as a group or network. All present felt the urgency to form a network which will help us address the issues of migrant workers at the state level. A committee was constituted to take this network idea forward.