State faces double challenge as cases continue to soar
STATE RURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT HAS STARTED A SURVEY THROUGH JSLPS, LIKE THE SKILL MAPPING DRIVE THAT TOOK PLACE LAST YEAR
RANCHI: With large scale inflow of migrant workers in wake of lockdown or restriction imposed by many states in the country, Jharkhand is up for a double challenge -- providing livelihood to the returnees and protecting villages from Covid spread, officials said.
In a bid to provide livelihood to the migrant workers according to their choice, state rural development department has started a survey through Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) like the skill mapping drive of previous year. In this survey, surveyors are also seeking migrants’ choice of work so that they could be engaged accordingly.
State rural development department director Aditya Ranjan said, “We started the survey about a week ago. Our objective is to map skill of the workers and understand their wish for work so that they could be provided jobs accordingly. Hordes of schemes are being run by rural development department and JSLPS. We will try to induct them under these schemes.”
He said, “After mapping of their skills, we will also offer them further opportunity to sharpen their skill under skill mission. Many people would also get job under it.”
Ranjan said they had also conducted similar kind of skill mapping drive last year and they have a detailed data of it. “We will merge the current and previous year’s data to identify how many fresh migrants moved out from state for jobs,” he said.
The department is also working to engage people in MGNREGA works. State urban development department officials said they were expecting large number of people would also get jobs under Mukhyamantri SHRAMIK (Shahri Rozgar Manjuri for Kamgar) Yojana (MSY), a 100-day job guarantee scheme for urban unskilled workers.
Skills of 5.30 lakh migrant workers had been mapped last year and a database of them had also been prepared so that they could be provided jobs according
to their skill set.
Jamesh Herenj, member of Right to Food Campaign (RFC), alleged that skill mapping would hardly help in providing job. “The government also carried out skill mapping drive last year. It now has a figure of how many people are skilled in how many
works. However, the government could not create jobs according to their skills in past one year,” he said.
Apart from livelihood, the Jharkhand government is also concerned about protecting villages from the spread of Coronavirus in backdrop of migrant workers returning home.
Chief minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday directed officials to speed up the Covid vigilance in rural areas, as large number of migrant workers are returning home.
Lakhs of migrant workers have returned to Jharkhand since first week of April this year after cases of Covid-19 started to soar in the country. But, state control room for migrant workers could contact mere 6,720 workers stranded outside Jharkhand.
An official of the control room said, “Trains and other means of transportation have not been suspended this time. Therefore, many people have returned without consulting us. So, we cannot provide you the figure how many people returned to Jharkhand till now.”
He said they have received 2,554 calls since first week of April, while 6,720 people were contacted, who are stuck outside and want to return.
The government, in its order for migrant workers on Wednesday, has observed that there was an exponential increase in Covid-19 cases in the state during the last fortnight. It was anticipated that the large-scale inflow of migrants back to their respective villages might pose a considerable threat in spread of the disease in rural areas, it said.
A senior official of state health department, who requested not to be quoted, said, “The recent government order is for the migrant workers, who are returning now. Identifying the workers who have already arrived is not an easy task. However, we are trying to cover them in special test drive. A mega Covid test drive was conducted across Jharkhand on Thursday.”