Synopsis The second half of the last decade has seen exponential and unprecedented growth in adivasi participation in the migrant labour market while there is evidence of adivasi participation in migrant labour markets over the last four decades, from the nineties onwards the phenomenon has risen to levels that can only be termed as a crisis of enormous proportions.

As livelihoods get eroded, old practices of bonded labour and forced labour are re-emerging in myriad new forms. Traditional forms of forest base employment have significantly reduced over the last two decades as a result of the continuous loss of forest, the disbanding of the forest labour co-operatives and changes in forest policy.