The States and the Union Territories have been advised by the Union Labour and Employment Ministry to organise free coronavirus (COVID-19) testing for migrant workers as well as to maintain a database of all workers moving out of their States.
The Ministry on Tuesday released its guidelines to the States “for the welfare of migrant workers returning to destination States in the backdrop of COVID-19”.
The 18-point advisory says that the States and the UTs may nominate a State-level nodal officer as well as district/block/tehsil-wise nodal officers for migrant workers.
Lockdown displaces lakhs of migrants
“The government(s) of state of origin and destination state should ensure screening and testing of migrant workers as per the protocol devised by the Ministry of Health and family Welfare in respect of COVID-19. Further, the migrant worker should not be put to any financial burden on account of testing and any treatment/quarantine required to be undertaken by them,” it says.
The States and the UTs were asked to provide face masks, hand sanitisers and soaps to the workers when screening them before leaving for their destination States.
“A proper database of migrant workers is a preliminary step in order to identify and protect vulnerability among them,” the guidelines says. The States of origin should collect the data and share with the destination States.
Enrolment in schemes
All migrant workers should be enrolled in the Central and State governments’ welfare schemes. Building and other construction workers’ welfare boards in the States should be “advised to incur the expenditure on account of payment of the premium for insurance schemes” for construction workers. The States should make sure there was no adverse impact on the education of the workers’ children.
The guidelines come as workers are returning to cities after having left in the wake of the lockdown implemented in March.
‘Guidelines seem to be ad hoc’
Chandan Kumar, national coordinator of the Working People’s Charter, which works to highlight the concerns of the unorganised sector, said the guidelines seemed to be “ad hoc”.
“I’m very sure that the States are not prepared. Neither do the States have the capacity nor the human and financial resources to implement the advisory,” he added.
