Events & Issues
New Delhi, 4 June
2020
Migration Commission
DESPAIR TO DIGNIFIED OPENING
By Dr. Saraswathi
(Former Director, ICSSR, New Delhi)
The current migrant workers crisis triggered
as a by-product of COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many problems in the national
labour situation, involving both host employers and guest workers, and both
home-State of the workers and the State where they are employed.
Noteworthy in this context is the
announcement by the Government of Uttar Pradesh to constitute a Migration
Commission in the State under the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of
Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1979, to integrate migrant workers
with the State’s economy and provide them employment within the State.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, evidently alarmed by the
magnitude of the migrant crisis, also said that if any State wants migrant
workers from UP, it would have to seek the permission of the UP Government
after demonstrating their ability to guarantee income and social security to
the workers. Legality and practicability
of the condition are doubtful, but surely the object is to protect migrant
workers from being exploited within or outside the State. It also shows that
the government wants to assume a pro-active role to safeguard the interests of
these workers.
UP Government has set up the Workers (Employment
and Livelihood) Welfare Commission named Kaamgar Shramik (Seva Ayojan and
Rozgar) Kalyan Ayog to find suitable employment for the workers within the State.
The final figure of migrant workers returning to UP is not known, but
definitely very large above 25 lakh.
This announcement is a result of a feeling
that UP’s migrant workers are not given care in this crisis period in some
States. Through the Migration Commission, UP Government intends to ensure basic
rights and security like insurance and ration cards to migrant workers. Skill
data about migrant workers are being collected to fit available workers with
available jobs.
While press reports and political leaders are
busy gathering and circulating stories of the plight of migrant labourers’ fleeing from their host
States back to their home, States and social activists are taking up human
rights issues, the root problem of fitting labour with employment and extending
some amount of protection to contract labour and guest workers is ignored. Migrant
workers are part of the country’s workforce deserving rights and protection
like any other workers with just one difference that they frequently change
their employer and their workplace. It is a constitutional right of every
citizen to live and work in any State.
Migrant crisis has provoked State governments
to plan for providing employment to these workers within the State. Among the
social problems that have emerged from the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the
one relating to migrant labour seems to be the most serious and biggest.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh
Chouhan is in favour of a short-term and a long-term plan. He has announced the
Rozgar Setu (Employment Bridge) scheme to help skilled workers among
migrant returnees to secure jobs. Such workers are being identified to absorb
them in suitable positions in factories, workshops, infrastructure projects,
etc. The State government will act as the bridge between the migrant labour and
employers. Shram Siddhi Abhiyan has been launched to provide work for unskilled
labourers.
In Bihar, massive data collection on the
workers’ skills and proficiencies is undertaken. In Haryana efforts are on to
hasten resumption of economic activities so as to absorb migrant returnees. Uttarakhand
has launched the Mukhyamantri Swarozgar Yojana (Chief Minister Self-Employement Scheme)
for the benefit of returning workers. Rajasthan has announced skill training
programmes; Gujarat is offering increased salaries to the returnees; and Punjab
is surveying new job opportunities.
A rare instance of Jharkhand government
arranging flight for some 60 migrant workers in Border Roads project who were stranded
in Leh to return to Ranchi is reported. This government is also trying to fly
back its migrants stranded in Andamans and north-eastern states. Nagaland is
drawing up strategies to create job opportunities to migrant workers.
Not all State governments are keen on
receiving back their workers who migrated in search of livelihood. Some have
even openly without hesitation expressed their dissent to arrival of trains
carrying migrants, and readiness to send back guest workers to their native States.
Southern and western India constitutes most
of the host States and north and north-eastern States are providing bulk of guest
workers. The present unexpected exodus is a big jolt to both sets of States.
Policy makers should wake up and use the challenge as an opportunity to devise plans
to set right development inequalities in the country which is the root cause of
mass and chain movements of unorganised labour taking place
in India.
A plan to find work for migrants is being
worked out in UP. Low cost shops and houses are planned in villages. A “skill
map” of lakhs of migrant workers is drawn which will help creation of skill
specific jobs. Yogi himself conducted interaction session with the workers to inspire
hope and confidence among these migrants who had undergone tremendous
sufferings. Several workers who had gained skill and experience in construction
work, and as drivers, gardeners, painters, etc., have registered for jobs with
the government. Recently announced package for MSMEs is expected to come to the
rescue of these workers.
The Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act 1979 to
regulate the service conditions of inter-State labourers under the Indian
Labour Law was intended to protect workers whose services were requisitioned
outside their native States. It applies to establishments with five or more
inter-state guest workers and to contractors involved in hiring them. It has
been used widely in Odisha. A key element of the plan was to allot Unorganised
Worker Identification Number (U-WIN) which was prescribed through a law in
2008, but it hasn’t come into regular practice. The result is incomplete and
unreliable data on migrant workers.
The law had many positive features like
provision for equal wages with local labour, displacement allowance, home
journey allowance, suitable residential accommodation, medical allowance, termination
after contract period without liability, etc. It also prescribed the role and
responsibility of employers, contractors, and the State government. It is now
planned to make registration under this Act attractive by including social
benefits like pension and healthcare.
Our problem today is to ensure that reverse
migration does not cause increased unemployment and another wave of migration
to places of work once the pandemic subsides.
The plight of migrant workers under lockdown
has arisen from deficiencies in labour conditions which have forced reverse
migrations. There is need to redefine the term “migrant workers” and launch an
effective plan to register them and cover them under labour and other welfare
laws available to other workers. It is time to enact a new law as the current
legal framework seems to be inadequate to protect the workers who have a right
to seek employment outside their native States.
A good deal of economic growth comprising
urbanization, modernisation, and development depends on migrant labour. The
ordeals of this group today are a sad reflection of the deficiencies of our labour
laws. We have to transform the present condition of migrant labour from despair
into a dignified and rewarding opportunity as part of inclusive growth.
Otherwise, appalling conditions at home will await the workers.---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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