India counts as migrant workers struggle for aid
MUMBAI: A veteran of organizing elections and pilgrimages in stifling dust and heat, Indian bureaucrat Pranabjyoti Nath sees a precious opportunity in the coronavirus crisis - documenting the country’s legions of migrant workers to help boost their rights. Millions of India’s migrant labourers say they are in limbo, struggling to access aid to survive the six-week lockdown in the states where they work and appealing for help from officials back home.
In the southern state of Kerala, Nath has tasked a team of volunteers with finding the names and bank details of 400,000 migrant labourers living in temporary shelters to make sure they get assistance. “They’ve collected the information of about 300,000 workers already,” Nath, Kerala’s labor commissioner, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. “The lockdown may be lifted, but this (data) is relevant for coming months. Policy-making is not possible without the numbers,” he added.
Elsewhere across the nation of 1.3 billion people, local officials are collating migrant worker data from phone calls to welfare helplines and social media messages, as well as counting them by visiting makeshift camps where many of the workers live. India’s strict lockdown measures, such as severing transport links, have taken a toll on the nation’s estimated 100 million migrant workers, triggering an exodus from cities where they worked in garment factories, building sites and brick kilns.
The government announced a $23 billion aid package to help the poor, including migrant workers, but relief has been patchy across the vast country. Power-loom operator Arun Gouda, who is stranded in the textile hub of Surat, said he was about to run out of food. “We couldn’t get through to any helpline number and nobody came looking for us,” he said from the city, where protests broke out for the third time in a month on Tuesday as migrant workers demanded to be allowed to return to their villages. “We’re in bad shape.”
On the move
India has no central registry of migrant workers despite passing legislation 40 years ago to establish such a database, the labor ministry told parliament last month. The law aimed to formalize employment contracts and protect migrant laborers’ rights, but it was rarely enforced. Labor officials say the fact that workers are constantly on the move makes documenting them difficult.
Appeals for help by migrant workers have provided a new tool for local officials, but campaigners fear the latest counting efforts will also fall short. “To do any sensible enumeration at this point is difficult,” said Rajiv Khandelwal, co-founder of migrant rights non-profit Aajevika Bureau. “Who will count - village councils or urban municipalities?” With migrant workers scattered across factories where they work and live, or living on the outskirts of cities or sleeping rough, counting them would be a challenge. —Reuters