NO RELIEF FOR MIGRANTS

Routinely excluded from urban health care systems, India's migrant workers struggled to find medical help for Covid-19 and other diseases during the second wave of the pandemic, a recent survey by labour rights organisation Aajeevika Bureau found. They also had trouble accessing free Covid-19 vaccines.

Of the migrant workers interviewed in the first week of May 2021, 27% had Covid-19 or other diseases during the second surge. Of them, 70% struggled to find treatment, 58% got no support from their employers and 62% were forced to borrow heavily to cover the healthcare costs, shows Aajeevika's telephonic survey of 195 migrant workers in Ahmedabad.

The survey also revealed the absence of support from employers. Up to 58% of the workers who had Covid-19 — or other diseases — were not paid for the period when they were ill; 32% were dismissed.

Rajanben Parmar, a leader of a workers' collective in Ahmedabad, says that unlike the 2020 outbreak of Covid-19, in April 2021 every tenement in her building complex in Narol had a positive case and the fear of infection was palpable. Aajeevika's survey found that 73% of the migrants feared contracting Covid-19 during the second wave because it would mean loss of income as well as heavy medical expenses.

Ayushman Bharat-pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), the Centre's flagship health insurance scheme which allows vulnerable families to avail free medical treatments of up to Rs 5 lakh per year, was extended to migrant workers for Covid-19 treatment in 2020.

However, Pankti Jog of Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel, a social activist explained that Coviddesignated hospitals were not necessarily empanelled under the PMJAY and Mukhyamantri Amritam Yojana, Gujarat's own health insurance scheme for poor families. And hospitals had received no directives either to treat cardholders for both schemes.