Periodic health review of migrants must, states told

The central government has asked states to ensure essential needs of migrant workers coming back to cities are taken care of, including free Covid-19 testing, housing facilities, and health insurance coverage. States have been advised to ensure periodical medical examination of migrant workers. They have also been asked to ensure their children are enrolled in schools where they are staying “to prevent adverse effects on education”. “Migrant workers should not face any financial burden on account of testing or any treatment/quarantine required to be undertaken by them,” the advisory guidelines by the labour and employment ministry said.

“A proper database of migrant workers is a preliminary step in order to identify and protect vulnerability among them…this data should also be shared with the concerned labour authorities to facilitate compliance with existing labour laws relating to wages, occupational safety and health and working conditions,” the guidelines said. States have also been advised to enroll eligible migrant workers under the Ayushman Bharat scheme to provide them health insurance cover of ~5 lakh per family a year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.

For construction workers who migrate, states have been advised to incur expenditure towards payment of premium for state insurance schemes. The Building and Other Construction Workers’ welfare funds can be utilised for this purpose. The Centre has asked states to issue guidelines to employers to take care of the needs of migrant workers. Apart from adequate availability of sanitizers, face masks, soaps at the workplace, “employers should also be encouraged to provide one-time transportation allowance/journey fare to migrant workers”.