MP assures wages for migrant workers to boost voter turnout

BHOPAL: Authorities in pollbound Madhya Pradesh have promised to take care of migrant workers’ wages to encourage them to return home to vote from neighbouring states.

This is a part of their attempts to boost voting percentage in districts, which had witnessed lower voter turnout in the last assembly polls in 2013.

Madhya Pradesh, which goes to the polls on November 28, had recorded an overall 72.21% voter turnout in 2013. Districts like Jhabua, Bhind, Gwalior, Chhatarpur and Tikamgarh had bucked the trend of higher turnout elsewhere in the state and recorded voting percentages between 53 and 57%.

A large number of people from these districts work in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. According to census 2011, the 50 lakhs people migrated from Madhya Pradesh.

Out of them 11 lakhs migrated seasonally every year.

Madhya Pradesh’s chief electoral officer V L Kantharao has asked collectors of districts with the lower voting percentage in 2013 due to migrations to provide jobs to migrant workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to encourage them to vote. Villagers can enrol for work to build rural infrastructure under MGNREGA for the minimum wage for 100 days a year. “Migration is a major problem, especially in the tribal areas of western Madhya Pradesh, Bundelkhand and Chambal region, where the voting percentage is low as compared to other areas,’’ said Kantharao.

He said a survey they had conducted found that only 2-4% migrant workers from Madhya Pradesh worked in the organised sector in other states.

This makes it difficult for a majority of the workers to return home without losing their daily wages. “Most of the migrants are labourers working in the unorganised sector,” said Kantharao. He said many migrant workers are expected to return home ahead of Diwali on November 7. “To convince them to stay on for the next 21 days till the polling day, we will provide them jobs under MGNREGA to ensure that wages are not a problem for them.” Kantharao has instructed collectors of districts mainly bordering Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh to also request their counterparts in those states to motivate migrant workers to return home to vote.