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The Indian migrant workers crisis during the Coronavirus Pandemic
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No Data On Migrant Deaths, So No Compensation, Says Government: 10 Points
New Delhi: There is no data on migrant deaths so the "question does not arise" of compensation, the Union labour ministry said in parliament on Monday to a question on whether families of those who had lost their lives while trying to reach home in the coronavirus lockdown had been compensated. The government's written response in Lok Sabha on the first day of the monsoon session triggered anger and criticism from the opposition. "If you haven't counted, have the deaths not taken place?" Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is abroad for his mother Sonia Gandhi's health check-up, tweeted this morning.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/par...ompensation-says-government-10-points-2295513
New Delhi: There is no data on migrant deaths so the "question does not arise" of compensation, the Union labour ministry said in parliament on Monday to a question on whether families of those who had lost their lives while trying to reach home in the coronavirus lockdown had been compensated. The government's written response in Lok Sabha on the first day of the monsoon session triggered anger and criticism from the opposition. "If you haven't counted, have the deaths not taken place?" Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is abroad for his mother Sonia Gandhi's health check-up, tweeted this morning.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/par...ompensation-says-government-10-points-2295513
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Fashion retailer H&M said on Tuesday that it would investigate reports of sexual harassment at a supplier’s factory in southern India following the death of a female employee and the arrest of a male co-worker on suspicion of her murder.
More than two dozen workers at the plant in Tamil Nadu state have spoken out about harassment since the 20-year-old’s body was found near her home on January 5, a labour rights group said, as H&M pledged “an independent third-party investigation”.
“Any future relationship with this supplier will entirely depend on the result of that investigation,” the company said in a statement, adding that it was in touch with the factory and did not tolerate harassment of any kind.
Police said a man who worked at the plant had been arrested on suspicion of murder in the case.
“Our investigations show the two were in a relationship and the motive for the murder was personal difference that arose between the two,” a police officer said, asking not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
He said they had not received any complaints of sexual harassment from employees of the garment factory or their union, but a regional rights groups said numerous workers had reported such incidents.
“The girl’s mother and co-workers have said she had confided in them about the harassment,” said Nandita Shivakumar, India coordinator of the Asia Floor Wage Alliance that works for garment workers’ rights in the region.
“At least 25 other workers we have spoken to told us about the harassment they have faced in the factory and we feel that the brand and manufacturer have failed to create an enabling environment for workers to complain,” she added.
India’s multimillion-dollar garment industry, which employs at least 12 million people, has often faced scrutiny for labour rights abuses and sexual harassment cases affecting its largely female workforce.
Labour rights campaigners have raised concerns that growing pressure from big brands on suppliers to deliver clothes quickly and cheaply is fuelling exploitation – from a lack of bathroom breaks to verbal and sexual abuse.
They also point to poor implementation of a 2013 law to combat sexual harassment at work, which requires employers with at least 10 workers to set up women-led complaint committees with the power to fine or fire those found guilty of harassment.
“There is a fear of retaliation in most cases and in some there is lack of awareness of how to use this law,” said Shivakumar.
“There were verbal complaints made to supervisors in this factory that were not taken seriously or forwarded to the internal complaints committee.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2...at-indian-factory-after-death-of-woman-worker
More than two dozen workers at the plant in Tamil Nadu state have spoken out about harassment since the 20-year-old’s body was found near her home on January 5, a labour rights group said, as H&M pledged “an independent third-party investigation”.
“Any future relationship with this supplier will entirely depend on the result of that investigation,” the company said in a statement, adding that it was in touch with the factory and did not tolerate harassment of any kind.
Police said a man who worked at the plant had been arrested on suspicion of murder in the case.
“Our investigations show the two were in a relationship and the motive for the murder was personal difference that arose between the two,” a police officer said, asking not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
He said they had not received any complaints of sexual harassment from employees of the garment factory or their union, but a regional rights groups said numerous workers had reported such incidents.
“The girl’s mother and co-workers have said she had confided in them about the harassment,” said Nandita Shivakumar, India coordinator of the Asia Floor Wage Alliance that works for garment workers’ rights in the region.
“At least 25 other workers we have spoken to told us about the harassment they have faced in the factory and we feel that the brand and manufacturer have failed to create an enabling environment for workers to complain,” she added.
India’s multimillion-dollar garment industry, which employs at least 12 million people, has often faced scrutiny for labour rights abuses and sexual harassment cases affecting its largely female workforce.
Labour rights campaigners have raised concerns that growing pressure from big brands on suppliers to deliver clothes quickly and cheaply is fuelling exploitation – from a lack of bathroom breaks to verbal and sexual abuse.
They also point to poor implementation of a 2013 law to combat sexual harassment at work, which requires employers with at least 10 workers to set up women-led complaint committees with the power to fine or fire those found guilty of harassment.
“There is a fear of retaliation in most cases and in some there is lack of awareness of how to use this law,” said Shivakumar.
“There were verbal complaints made to supervisors in this factory that were not taken seriously or forwarded to the internal complaints committee.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2...at-indian-factory-after-death-of-woman-worker
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Mumbai: With Covid-19 cases surging ahead and fear of another complete lockdown, the migrant workers in various parts of Maharashtra are heading back to their home states.
Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai and Pune railway station have been witnessing huge crowd in the last few days with a sizeable number of the migrant workforce leaving for their native places.
Speaking to ANI, Shivam Pandey, a native of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, said that he did not want to experience the pain of lockdown again and thus he was leaving for his hometown.
"Now that curfew has been imposed, what would we do here? What would we eat? We are leaving the city because we do not want to go through the pain we endured during the lockdown," he said.
Meanwhile, Dileel Batwal, secretary, Federation of Chakan Industries in Pune confirmed that around 10 per cent of workers in the industrial belt have left the city due to the lockdown fear.
Batwal said that with the rising number of coronavirus cases and talk of lockdown, many workers are returning to their native places
"As the number of cases are increasing, and there is talk of a lockdown, some workers, out of fear, are returning to their homes in districts within Maharashtra as well as other states," the secretary of the Federation of Chakan Industries said.
"There are some 5 lakh workers in Chakan industrial belt and 10 per cent of this workforce has left the city due to the lockdown fear, especially because of the horrendous experience last year. There are queues at railway stations, bus depots etc as well," he added.
https://www.timesnownews.com/india/...t-workers-exodus-begins-in-maharashtra/744889
Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai and Pune railway station have been witnessing huge crowd in the last few days with a sizeable number of the migrant workforce leaving for their native places.
Speaking to ANI, Shivam Pandey, a native of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, said that he did not want to experience the pain of lockdown again and thus he was leaving for his hometown.
"Now that curfew has been imposed, what would we do here? What would we eat? We are leaving the city because we do not want to go through the pain we endured during the lockdown," he said.
Meanwhile, Dileel Batwal, secretary, Federation of Chakan Industries in Pune confirmed that around 10 per cent of workers in the industrial belt have left the city due to the lockdown fear.
Batwal said that with the rising number of coronavirus cases and talk of lockdown, many workers are returning to their native places
"As the number of cases are increasing, and there is talk of a lockdown, some workers, out of fear, are returning to their homes in districts within Maharashtra as well as other states," the secretary of the Federation of Chakan Industries said.
"There are some 5 lakh workers in Chakan industrial belt and 10 per cent of this workforce has left the city due to the lockdown fear, especially because of the horrendous experience last year. There are queues at railway stations, bus depots etc as well," he added.
https://www.timesnownews.com/india/...t-workers-exodus-begins-in-maharashtra/744889
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As states begin unlocking, returning migrants struggle to find work
Most migrant workers complain that factories aren’t allowing new people in. They also lack any support in places they go to, in search of work
Dinesh Rathore from Muzaffarpur in Bihar returned to Delhi nearly after two and a half months of staying in his native village during the lockdown in the national capital amid the rising Covid cases in April.
“I am the sole bread earner of my family. There are younger brothers and parents back at home to feed. All my savings, from my daily wages of ₹300 wages, were over during this year’s lockdown,” says Rathore.
As lockdown restrictions have started easing in many migrant worker receiving states such as Goa, Mumbai, Delhi, workers have begun returning in search of work.
“Our village has hundreds of people who come to Delhi for work. We heard that work here would resume by May-end so I returned with a brother of mine, hoping to find him work too. But there is really no work here. For 10 days, we have been approaching different factories to give us work. I am skilled at iron smithing and welding work as well, but they are not allowing strangers to enter the factories,” he says, adding that the siblings are left with very little ration.
Another migrant labourer, Pavan Sahni, who belongs to Poornia in Bihar, returned to Neemrana in Rajasthan where he worked earlier, but he says not much has changed. With a wife and three kids to support, Sahni earlier sold ice-creams that a local factory gave him along with a refrigerated cart. He got paid ₹2 rupees per piece sold. “I used to earn over ₹400 a day but people are now wary of buying food from small-time vendors like me and the police also don’t allow us to station the cart in streets, leave alone major roads,” he says.
“There is a place called Labour Chowk here where migrant workers assemble in the morning and people looking for labourers hire them for ₹300 a day. My friend and I got work only twice,” he says
Sahni adds there has been a rush of labourers to the chowk as the news [of police allowing labourers to wait for work] spread. “I am jobless again. These ₹600 rupees are all that I have earned since I came back for work. I could not even earn enough to pay for the rent of the room where my family stays,” he says.
Gulzar Ahmad from Jharkhand had also returned home from Goa as the state imposed a lockdown in April. Most of the labourers in his village worked in Goa as labourers and housekeeping staff in hotels but now, they are choosing to go to other states, not Goa.
“Since the lockdown, not many tourists are going there and most of the hotels are closed. Some of my friends left for Hyderabad yesterday as someone assured them on the phone that he needed workers. They are not sure about it but it is better to search than stay idle or even go to Goa where everything is shut,” he said.
He added that the weather in states such as Karnataka, Goa, and Kerala is also not conducive, post-Cyclone Yaas.“There has been a severe cyclone recently and that has impacted work availability as well,” he says.
Gayatri Sahgal from Stranded worker action network (SWAN), a volunteer group working for migrant workers, says that the government has been negligent and has been giving false assurances of support to them.
HT has already reported on the defunct government helplines which include contact numbers of 100 labour commissioners meant to help these workers with ration, non-payment of wages, basic financial assistance, protection from eviction by landlords and travel support for workers to get back home. Some of these commissioners tasked for this did not even know that their numbers were listed as helplines.
Sahgal says unlock has not been planned well, adding that migrant workers trying to get back to work need some basic financial assistance to survive till they find work .
She adds that while Delhi is lending ration of 4 kgs of wheat and 1 kg rice, migrant workers may not have support in places they wish to go for work. “The extension of ration to non-PDS card holders should be done on a war footing. While the government might claim stock assessment issues as migrant workers are not a static population in any one state, there are some well researched surveys of this patterned migration which could give them an average number of labourers in each state,” she says.
“We have better models of reducing migrant distress, like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), available with us. Their extended implementation is needed, especially when the urban economy has suffered so much,” she says adding the government should also start projects in urban localities which could cater to the welfare of such workers. MGNREGA provides at least 100 days of daily wage employment every year to unemployed people for those adults who volunteer to do unskilled manual work, according to its official website.
A labour ministry spokesperson admitted to HT that there have been complaints from workers who are unable to find work despite easing of lockdown curbs and that most factories are refusing to let them in, but the government was yet to chalk out any plan to address the issue.
There also wasn’t a response from Central Labour Commissioner DPS Negi on how the government was planning to re-integrate these workers.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/lockdown-curbs-eased-returning-migrants-continue-to-struggle-for-work-101623058233660.html
Most migrant workers complain that factories aren’t allowing new people in. They also lack any support in places they go to, in search of work
Dinesh Rathore from Muzaffarpur in Bihar returned to Delhi nearly after two and a half months of staying in his native village during the lockdown in the national capital amid the rising Covid cases in April.
“I am the sole bread earner of my family. There are younger brothers and parents back at home to feed. All my savings, from my daily wages of ₹300 wages, were over during this year’s lockdown,” says Rathore.
As lockdown restrictions have started easing in many migrant worker receiving states such as Goa, Mumbai, Delhi, workers have begun returning in search of work.
“Our village has hundreds of people who come to Delhi for work. We heard that work here would resume by May-end so I returned with a brother of mine, hoping to find him work too. But there is really no work here. For 10 days, we have been approaching different factories to give us work. I am skilled at iron smithing and welding work as well, but they are not allowing strangers to enter the factories,” he says, adding that the siblings are left with very little ration.
Another migrant labourer, Pavan Sahni, who belongs to Poornia in Bihar, returned to Neemrana in Rajasthan where he worked earlier, but he says not much has changed. With a wife and three kids to support, Sahni earlier sold ice-creams that a local factory gave him along with a refrigerated cart. He got paid ₹2 rupees per piece sold. “I used to earn over ₹400 a day but people are now wary of buying food from small-time vendors like me and the police also don’t allow us to station the cart in streets, leave alone major roads,” he says.
“There is a place called Labour Chowk here where migrant workers assemble in the morning and people looking for labourers hire them for ₹300 a day. My friend and I got work only twice,” he says
Sahni adds there has been a rush of labourers to the chowk as the news [of police allowing labourers to wait for work] spread. “I am jobless again. These ₹600 rupees are all that I have earned since I came back for work. I could not even earn enough to pay for the rent of the room where my family stays,” he says.
Gulzar Ahmad from Jharkhand had also returned home from Goa as the state imposed a lockdown in April. Most of the labourers in his village worked in Goa as labourers and housekeeping staff in hotels but now, they are choosing to go to other states, not Goa.
“Since the lockdown, not many tourists are going there and most of the hotels are closed. Some of my friends left for Hyderabad yesterday as someone assured them on the phone that he needed workers. They are not sure about it but it is better to search than stay idle or even go to Goa where everything is shut,” he said.
He added that the weather in states such as Karnataka, Goa, and Kerala is also not conducive, post-Cyclone Yaas.“There has been a severe cyclone recently and that has impacted work availability as well,” he says.
Gayatri Sahgal from Stranded worker action network (SWAN), a volunteer group working for migrant workers, says that the government has been negligent and has been giving false assurances of support to them.
HT has already reported on the defunct government helplines which include contact numbers of 100 labour commissioners meant to help these workers with ration, non-payment of wages, basic financial assistance, protection from eviction by landlords and travel support for workers to get back home. Some of these commissioners tasked for this did not even know that their numbers were listed as helplines.
Sahgal says unlock has not been planned well, adding that migrant workers trying to get back to work need some basic financial assistance to survive till they find work .
She adds that while Delhi is lending ration of 4 kgs of wheat and 1 kg rice, migrant workers may not have support in places they wish to go for work. “The extension of ration to non-PDS card holders should be done on a war footing. While the government might claim stock assessment issues as migrant workers are not a static population in any one state, there are some well researched surveys of this patterned migration which could give them an average number of labourers in each state,” she says.
“We have better models of reducing migrant distress, like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), available with us. Their extended implementation is needed, especially when the urban economy has suffered so much,” she says adding the government should also start projects in urban localities which could cater to the welfare of such workers. MGNREGA provides at least 100 days of daily wage employment every year to unemployed people for those adults who volunteer to do unskilled manual work, according to its official website.
A labour ministry spokesperson admitted to HT that there have been complaints from workers who are unable to find work despite easing of lockdown curbs and that most factories are refusing to let them in, but the government was yet to chalk out any plan to address the issue.
There also wasn’t a response from Central Labour Commissioner DPS Negi on how the government was planning to re-integrate these workers.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/lockdown-curbs-eased-returning-migrants-continue-to-struggle-for-work-101623058233660.html
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