House panel wants social security number for migrant workers

Migrant workers travelling by the Shramik Special train, queue up for water at a railway station in Vijayawada. (Source: The Hindu)

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour has recommended that the government introduce a social security number for migrant workers, especially those working in the unorganised sectors which are beyond the purview of the labour laws.

Lockdown displaces lakhs of migrants

The panel headed by BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab has suggested that such a number is essential to avert situations like the one during the extended lockdown when several lakh workers had to walk back to their homes as they were shut out of employment overnight.

Govt. for website

At a meeting of the panel held on Monday, the Labour Secretary Heeralal Samariya revealed that the government was planning to set up a website to register migrant workers. Mr. Samariya further said a worker’s Aadhaar number will be used for the registration.

“The members felt that the aadhaar number alone doesn’t work. A social security number will not only help in mapping the number of migrant workers and their migration patterns,” one of the members, who attended the meeting, said.

The Labour Ministry was unable to give any concrete figures on number of migrant workers. Quoting the Railway Ministry, officials said 1.08 crore migrant workers had travelled on Special Shramik express trains initiated by the government to ferry migrant workers. One of the panel members, according to the sources, pointed out that students and family members of the workers too used these trains and thus this figure doesn’t accurate record the number of migrant workers.

Detailed records

The panel has recommended that both the State of origin and State where the worker has migrated to should have a record. They also pointed out that the government’s Social Security Code Bill 2019, which is under the committee’s consideration provides for a social security fund. But there are no specific details in the legislation as to who will contribute to the fund and how will it be utilised.

“The migrant workers may or may not have access to the Internet, which is why we suggested that the smallest arm of administration — the gram sabhas — should be roped in. The same work can be done by municipality workers in the urban areas,” another member said.