No domicile criteria to get social security
In a major relief to 40 crore people always on the move, migrating from state to state for work and employment, a working group set up by the government in 2015 has recommended that the criteria of the domicile or residence provisions be scrapped for availing the social security benefits of the states.
In a report submitted to the government on Wednesday, the Working Group on Migration has also recommended that the migrants should be allowed to have the benefits of the PDS (public distribution system) and the caste-based reservations that they enjoy in their home states.
It has laid stress on extension of all government facilities and benefits to the migrants in deference to their constitutional right of freedom of movement and residence in any part of the territory of the country that every Indian citizen enjoys. It wanted the state governments to provide them better protection against the locals agitating from time to time to drive out the migrants eating away into their job market.
The report provides legal and policy framework necessary to help out the migrants who constitute about 30% of India’s population. It deals with facilitation of access, food security, health benefit, education and housing, skill and financial benefits and protection of the interests of the migrants.
It notes that the migrant workers fail to avail benefits if they migrate from one place to another, losing access to social benefits because of the change of location across the city. It wants the states to proactively eliminate the requirement of domicile status to prevent any discrimination to the migrants in work and employment. "States are also to be asked to include migrant children in the annual work plans under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to uphold their Right to Education and an integrated legislative approach on basic guarantee of wage and work conditions," the report said.
Working Group on migration lays stress on extension of all govt facilities and benefits to migrants in any part of the territory of the country that every Indian citizen enjoys