How To Get Migrant Labour Back To Work
As India enters the 4.0 lockdown, the Narendra Modi led government is looking at every possible way to gradually restart the economic activity. Center has withdrawn its lockdown directives and only broad central guidelines in place and states have allowed following their own strategies for a sequential establishment of the economy. Hence, the Modi government has to come up with a huge financial package that will put money in the hands of people so that they start spending on their daily necessities.
To do so, workers should be reassured that precautionary measures have been taken for which strong messaging is required. Besides, the transport service is also required to return to the workplace with all health protocols, including facilities for daily commuting.
The migrant worker population is widely engaged in transportation, construction work, and MSME sectors. Getting them back to work is a challenge as we exit from the lockdown but we need to assure them their safety and health. Most of them want to return home due to uncertainties coupled with fear. The industry can play a major role at this point in time. State governments have started working towards restarting the economy to allow regular jobs or means of supporting life which in turn would help them earn incomes and back up reduced savings after a month of lockdown.
Basic minimum living conditions would encourage them to get back to work quickly. Authorities are working with skill professions in states to map the skills of the laborers who are available and accordingly ensure that they reach the closest places where these skills are needed in the industry.
Certain economic activities like construction may still require sourcing local labor from non-containment zones, and in small numbers in the beginning. In rural areas, long-distance demand and supply chains of essential goods are being opened up through digital platforms by some state governments. But both the Centre and state agricultural agencies will need to coordinate with district-level marketing boards to resume supply chains to organized retail chains across cities and towns.
The government needs to play the role of a market mover to improve the economic period. Manufacturing and construction companies require to get into the track with better credit availability. Once manufacturing and construction is improved, more jobs will be possible. Better credit for companies will add liquidity to the economy.
To fight with the situation, the Centre has also started arranging some special trains and various travel solutions for all the migrant workers all over India to reach their homes safe.
The Centre has framed a panel and the panel has recommended to Modi govt a slew of measures to encourage lakhs of migrant workers who have returned or are returning to their native villages after losing jobs due to the Covid-19 lockdown, to come back to the cities and resume work.
The Centre has drafted a National Employment Policy to look into labour welfare, establishing a ‘Migrant Workers Welfare Fund’, under which every migrant worker should be automatically enrolled into the fund that will operate on equal contributions from the worker, employer, home state government, destination state government, and the central administration.
The Centre is also registering them under Ayushman Bharat, the government’s flagship health insurance scheme, so that they are able to access cashless medical facilities at their workplace. These are some of the measures suggested by a ministerial panel led by Union Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot, Social Justice and Empowerment.
The group of ministers (GoM) has also recommended setting a National Employment Policy (NEP), with a medium to long-term perspective providing a framework for an inter-sectoral strategy for employment and economic growth to enhance the skills and human resource development, including overall labor welfare and labor market governance in the country.\
The group of ministers (GoM) has also recommended confidence-building proposals such as scholarships to the children of the migrant workers for their schooling, access to Anganwadis for their children, textbooks and school uniforms, water and sanitation measures at their place of stay, ration card mobility and recreational activities by their employers.
A large number of the workforce is engaged in construction works. The group of ministers also suggested launching a drive to enroll around 2 crore construction workers to register under Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) Act that will provide them pension, social assistance, housing loans education benefits, group insurance, maternity benefits, and skill training.
The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has already announced the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ system to enable migrant workers and their family members to access PDS benefits from any Fair Price Shop in the country.
Increasing the MGNREGA budget by Rs 40,000 crore over and above the Rs 60,000 crore that was allotted earlier in the budget will give livelihood security to people who are coming back to the villages.
Image sources: News18
