Centre sets up an online database to monitor, facilitate workers’ journey
nNEW DELHI: As tens of thousands of migrant workers continue to walk back home, the Centre on Saturday created an online repository to monitor and facilitate their movement in coordination with the state governments.
This database, the Centre said, will also help in contact tracing of migrant workers and keeping in touch with them so as to ensure theat the benefits they are eligible for reach them, and to plan their reverse journeys. Through the database, the states will also be able to plan more effectively as they will have the exact number and details of migrants before they arrive, the ministry of home affairs said.
The database is currently on the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) portal accessible to government agencies and states. It is likely to be available for access to states/ ministries from Sunday, said an official.
The lockdown imposed from March 25 to fight the spread of the Coronavirus disease stranded many migrant workers in cities where they were worknumber, ing; many lost their jobs on account of the lockdown and in the absence of public transport they couldn’t travel back home. Many set out walking, or cycling back home, but some were turned back at state borders and housed in shelters. It was only in late April that some states started organizing buses to ferry them back home. Soon after the ministry of home affairs came up with a protocol on their movement by bus, and, on May 1, the rail ministry launched special trains for them. However, there aren’t enough trains and some migrants do not have the documents required , so they continue to walk back home. Those who can afford to, hire trucks and buses, but many are just walking.
The format seeks the migrants’ Aadhaar and mobile state or origin, address, mode of transportation and destination state. This data will also be collected for all stranded migrants, including students, tourists, and pilgrims.
Developed by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the online dashboard , National Migrant Information System (NMIS) will maintain a central repository. It will also help the states from which the migrants are departing, and the states to which they are headed, coordinate the movement, union home secretary Ajay Bhalla stated in his letter to all the states/union territories. Both sets of states have to sign off.
“This system will help in speedy communication between states without creating additional work at the level of field officers. It has additional advantages like contact tracing, which may be useful in overall Covid-19 response work,” Bhalla added.
The states can upload data on the portal.
Many states have already collected migrant data.
“States will be able to visualize how many people are going out from where and how many are reaching their destination states. The mobile numbers of people can be used for contact tracing and movement during Covid-19,” the letter said.
Each migrant worker will be provided a unique ID which can be used for all transactions and Central government ministries will also be able to track movement using this portal. These IDS of people moving by a particular train will be given to railways by the origin state while giving the requisition for trains. Railway minister Piyush Goyal tweeted – “To provide relief to migrant labour, Indian Railways is ready to run Shramik Special trains from any District in the Country. District Collectors should prepare lists of stranded labour & destination and apply to Railways through the State nodal officer.”
The home secretary told the states that both individual particulars and special identifiers (origin, destination address) need to be captured to provide facility of contact tracing as more train and bus journeys are planned.
“A ready database can be of help in planning reverse journeys in a systematic manner,” he wrote. The central database, government said, can also be used for e-pass generation.
IT WILL ALSO HELP IN CONTACT TRACING AND KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH THEM SO AS TO ENSURE THAT THE BENEFITS THEY ARE ELIGIBLE
FOR REACH THEM