Migrant Crisis – A Reality Check

Posted On Jun 8, 2020 By admin With Comments Off

This article is written by R.Kaviya, pursuing IBC Executive certificate course from Lawsikho. This article talks about the problems which the migrants face and what are the steps that the government undertakes to resolve this issue.

Introduction

Since the edict of lockdown in India, report canals and other social media programmes have been representing perturbing photographs of people accompanying their room back to their hometowns without be made available to basic inevitabilities. They are the migrant labourers who are worst hit by the shutdown enforced. High-pitched Commissioner for Human Right, Michelle Bachelet has also expressed his concern over the migrant worker’s concerns.

Migrants- the Most Prone Class

According to the website of the Registrar General& Census Commissioner, a person is considered as migrant when a he/ she is enumerated in Census at a different region than his/ her place of birth. Moves are the marginalized and vulnerable groups which are experiencing the worst economic hardships as a result of containment calibrates. Harmonizing to the census, the level of urbanization in India has increased to 31.16% in 2011. There have been estimates that the magnitude of inter-state migration in India was close to 9 million yearly between 2011 and 2016, while Census 2011 pegs that the number of members of internal migrants in the country is around 139 million.

Important of Migrant Population

Internal migration is essential for economic proliferation and developing as it enables the allocation of labour to more productive openings across sectors and benefits the region that people move to and likewise the place where they move from. Yet, interstate migration in India is less than in other countries at a similar stagecoach of fiscal growing, studies demonstrate. This is largely because nomads contribute to the fiscal emergence of their end territories but get few social welfare benefits there.

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Migrants are also like all other parties in the host field and face the same health menaces from COVID-1 9 but they are also subject to special vulnerabilities. Lack of access to essential services, discrimination and isolation based on language and culture; shortage of migrant-inclusive health programmes, law and regulatory obstructions, etc. give them in jeopardy.

Is the Government Efficient in Protecting the Rights of Migrant Labourers?

We need a holistic approach to answer this question so as to hit upon a way out of this situation of move labours. In affirmative to the above question, the three branches of Indian Government i.e. the legislative, exec and judiciary have been taking significant initiatives to protect the rights of the migrant workforce.

Legislative’s Role

identified its responsibility and ratified important legislations to protect their rights in light of the inadequacy of other general labour legislations. Inter-State Migrant Workmen( Regulation of Employment and Problems of Service) Act, 1979; Unorganized Workers Social Security Act, 2008 and The Building and Other Building Proletarians( Regulation Of Employment And Preconditions Of Service) Act, 1996 are the specific legislations who the hell is ordained. But unfortunately, State Migrant Workmen( Regulation of Employment and Status of Service) Act, 1979 is one of the least enforced legislations in the country and whether the intended purpose of the Act has been attained is again an important question that needs to be answered and the same is discussed in the later parts of the essay.

Judiciary’s persona

With regard to the actions of the other two limbs of the Government, two writ petitions which were filed in the Supreme Court of India are noteworthy.

Alakh Alok Srivastava v. UOI

In the PIL filed by Mr. Alakh Alok Srivastava, he prayed for issuance of a direction to the Union of India for immediate the purpose of determining the moving/ stranded migrant workers and to change them to the government shelter homes or housing and provide them with proper food, clean drinking water and prescriptions under medical oversight, in a decorous form. A composite plan for rehabilitation of aggrieved craftsmen including free transportation, one-month statutory wage to each migrant and one-month free food after the lockdown was over; setting up of a “Migrant Labourer Crisis Management Board as a Common Gateway” for the supervision and monitoring of the welfare measures to avoid such crisis in the future; establishment of a 24 -Hour Multi-Lingual Call Centre as a pivotal point for specifying accurate information and effective grievance for redressal to migrant workers in a crisis situation in future were all cried for by the petitioner.

Harsh Mander& Anr. v. Union of India

In another writ petition filed by social partisan, Mr. Harsh Mander and Ms. Anjali Srivastav, petitioners attempted immediate payment of minimum wages to migrant workers and poverty-stricken self-employed people. This application pertained to the order issued by Ministry of Home Affairs whereby it aimed all employers to pay compensations to the migrant workers, and that their landowners shall not evict them. The PIL claimed that this was an insufficient measure, and the Central and State Authority should ensure the wages to be paid to the migrant workers at the place they were at, during the lockdown. The petitioners raised concerns about security of about 15 Lakh migrant labourers over-crowding at refuge dwellings for nutrient and availability of ration at the sanctuary homes set up for migrant workers. In both the writ petitions, the State filed its status report referring to which it defended and detailed the initiatives taken by the Central and various State Governments to protect the rights of migrant workers amidst the cataclysm.

The Solicitor General stated that they have done what was priority first and further referred to a report showing transfer of an amount of money to people’s reports via direct benefit send and explained that the Government was also catering to their financial needs. The Court was satisfied with the Government’s status report and eventually both the petitions were disposed.

Executive- few miraculous the instigation of the Government

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana whereby poor person were to be provided with rations; financial assistance to construction workers were to be provided through Welfare Fund for Building and Other Building Works; relief cliques; mandatory guidances issued to all employers to make payment of incomes to their workers at their workplaces on the due date without any subtraction; tendency has been submitted to landowners not to obligate migrant workers and other poor people to pay the rent with strict line-ups to the district administration to take action against transgressing proprietors; advisory issued by Government of India for authorities to effectively deal with rumour spreading to prevent unnecessary panic and dread among the migrants; plan to counsel casual laborer to deal with the panic state of mind; setting up of helpline count for helping the poor craftsmen, etc.

Though the efforts of the Government are really measurable, it is undeniable that we are falling short at some degree from achieving the ultimate objective of protecting the rights of the migrant population.

Has the Welfare Schemes reached the Target Group?

According to the report published by Stranded Workers Action Network, groupings of voluntaries connecting succour to proletarians stranded across India due to the COVID-1 9 lockdown, about 50 percent of older workers had foods left for less than 1 day which has remained unchanged since the first stage of the lockdown. It increased to about 54 percentage for a few days after 14 th April. More than 97 percent( out of 10,383 surveyed) have not received any cash relief from the government. With no cash-relief for migrants, 64% have less than Rs. 100 left with them and in many instances it was reported that the money transferred to their bank accounts was also deducted by banks as retribution for not maintaining minimum balance. More than 99% of the self-employed have had no earnings during this period. These include street vendors, rickshaw pullers.

Moreover, the financial package( Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana) had nothing to offer for the migrant workers. Jan Sahas database of approximately 60,000 workers, therefore seems that 17% of craftsmen do not have a bank account, hence will be excluded from gaining any benefit from the financial package announced. It was likewise found that the bank accounts are inactive for at least 30 -4 0% of labourers who have accounts.

While there was an announcement of some cash support for construction workers, in reality, most construction workers are not registered and hence not even eligible to receive any currency assistance. Hence, the central government’s announcement of aid to construction workers from the cess collected by labour aid timbers means nothing to the millions of stranded migrants who are not registered. As on April 26 th, merely about 6% of all those who have reached out to the group have received their full compensations during the lockdown and about 78% have not been paid at all. This excludes the self-employed workers. Some who have been given ration by the employers was saying that the money for the foods will be deducted and a few works have also been threatened not to complain. With neither meat nor money, migrant workers have been propagandized to the brink of starvation, fright levels of vulnerability and extreme indignity. Though food is the very basic necessity, it alone cannot do good without some financial assistance.

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Possible Solutions and Recommendations

Stringent enforcement of principle and legislative reform- There is a statutory obligation to record migrant labour in many legislations that is binding on the central and state governments such as the National Disaster Management Act( 2005 ), the Interstate Migrant Worker Act( 1979 ), and the Street Vendors Act( 2014 ), among others. Further, there are other wage laws which mandate that workers are entitled to the payment of full and timely compensations, to displacement allowance, a home tour subsidy including fee of payments during the journey. It is the Government’s responsibility to ensure compliance of these principles for a safe and secure working environment for migrant workers. The majority of stranded works were not able to recall the name of the primary make or corporation they have been working for. Their exclusively link to the city or town where they are working is through their contractor. They were only able to name their contractor , not even the names of the registered company of the contractor.

In most cases, contractors have switched off their phones leaving workers to fend for themselves. Though it is their duty to ensure regular payment of compensations to such workers, contractors cannot be accused alone because they themselves are not in a resonate position to enforce the rights of migrants. In one speciman, Salim Sheikh, a small-time contractor managed to arrange for grains for 50 of his workers and trade he reached out to SWAN and said that he had not been able to pay the labour wages as due to the lockdown, his business has taken a severe hit. Hence, the Government must ensure that every primary employer solely adheres to paying the wages to their contractors and to the workers. Labour legislations, extremely the Interstate Migrant Worker Act( 1979 ), need to be updated in order to avoid such issues in the future. The OECD Economic survey report published in December 2019 makes a key recommendation to enact more flexible and simpler labour laws.

Use of technology to improve efficiency- Bihar was the first state to introduce an app-based transfer of Rs. 1,000 to moves stranded outside the district and Jharkhand introduced a similar app through which stranded migrants can get up-to Rs. 2,000. Through this app, these two states have been able to provide some immediate relief to stranded migrants and despite certain difficulties, 13 lakh people had been successful in registered on the Bihar government app. Such lotions prove to be extremely useful and if introduced to the whole nation, this will be allowed the Government to channelize the rations and financial assistance more effectively. Even if not inserted as a whole new app, an updation of the existing Arogya Setu app to include such pieces would be beneficial.

Supply of rations- Numerous professors, economists and activists have also appealed to the government to provide rations by using the stocks from the FCI godowns, universalise menu security and provide cash relief to workers at the least. The Tamil Nadu Government performs free food at all its Amma canteens throughout the lockdown. Schemes like this would help not only the migrants but everyone below the poverty line.

Safer transportation-The Ministry of Home Affairs order issued on 29 th April allows migrant workers to travel back to their hometowns but this needs much more clarity. The dictate as it stands merely mentions travel by road. Special drills should be organised for inter-state migrants instead of buses because of the large number of migrants and long distances. Also drills will be less costly and must be done on Indian Railways/ Central government outlays and not by state governments. Rallying bus fare from them would reach the whole idea of transportation meaningless and the Government shall make arrangements for free transportation.

A exhaustive approaching to this crisis has implications for national and local public health, residence, and fiscal programmes. Further, it is important that migrants are included in measures that are being introduced to mitigate the economic downturn caused by COVID-1 9.

Need to protect their right to live with dignity- Food Security, Wage Compensation, Shelters, Housing and Transportation are important relief measures which will help alleviate some of the problems faced by migrants in the short to medium term. However, it is important to deliberate on the dignity of the lives of the workers and migrants in the longer term. In one instance, a migrant worker stated that those who went to provide food clicked visualizes with all of them but simply two of them were provided with food. Similarly, in many other instances, the dignity of migrants haven been dismissed. This clearly shows that the Government is not only responsible for their plight.

Inference

A pandemic is not the time for blame play as everybody including the Government, health care professionals and NGOs are all striving hard to tackle the situation. In many plazas, civil society organisations render catering and delivery service and several mortals have really stepped up by contributing stores, rations and cooked nutrient. In Delhi/ Gurgaon and parts of Tamil Nadu, it has been noted that the landowners have plied their renters, largely migrant workers and daily payment labourers, with nutrient and ration, in addition to relaxing the fee appointment for the hire. In some places in Tamil Nadu, regional convenience store proprietors have given ration supplies on loan to migrant workers from West Bengal. The worst affected, the migrant workers themselves, indicating how enormous generosity and shared their foods with those in need. Amidst all the disheartening things happening during the course of its pandemic, instances like this provide us an affirmation that we can overcome this if we all stand united( adhering to social distancing norms) with humanity.

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