Once again fear of severe drought is looming large over Jharkhand which often juxtaposes with enhanced number of labourers migrating to other parts of the country in search of livelihood. More worrying is to know that the caravan would be more of less without the social security scheme planned for them over two years ago.
Information accessed by this newspaper suggest that during previous year just Rs 35 lakh could be spent against the provision of Rs 2 crore meant to enroll and provide identity cards to the outgoing human resources of the State. “Demand from all the districts remained low and just about 35 lakh has been spent during 2013-14. We have asked all the Deputy Commissioners to speed up the process by organising special camps this time,” said labour Commissioner Rahul Sharma.
The labour Department had in 2012 launched the ambitious scheme which was aimed to track the migrant labourers from the State in order to provide financial assistance to them or their family members in case of any casualty or permanent disability inflicted upon in the period of their stay. The Department keeps registration of every migrant worker with the help of local panchayat.
The labourers are to be issued certificates of registration and classified in two categories–one who were registered with an agency or agent and other those who move out of the State in search of jobs on their own.
“We issue green colour photo identity card for those going with the help of agents and red card for those who are going without any agent. Provision of Rs 1.5 lakh as assistance for all the card holders are in place if there is death or permanent injury caused to the labourer. But if one is not registered under the scheme the Government cannot help in that case,” added the labour Commissioner. The cardholders in case of partial disability get Rs 75,000 as assistance.
The Department realising the poor execution rate has identified districts where special attention would be given for the purpose. This includes Gumla, Khunti, Simdega, latehar, and lohardaga; also considered as major source of migrating labourers to other parts of the country. “What we are looking at is to prepare a database with us which would also check illegal and unregistered migrations. Such cases also lead to maximum number of exploitation,” said a DC of one of the prominently labour migration prone districts.
Rough estimates suggest that above 15 lakh workers migrate to other states looking for employment in farm and non-farm sectors, mainly in brick kilns, every year. Many of them are subjected to lots of hardship and even lose their lives in accidents.
Sources say more than 7000 cards of both the categories are still to be distributed while fresh allotment of Rs 2crore is to be made for 2014-15. With the given response thus far, many DCs admit that reversing the trend would be a tough call for the Department. “Many labourers are even discouraged not to register as it would put the particular area in bad light. Officials of migration prone districts are often pulled up and blamed for insufficient implementation of welfare schemes and rural job scheme such as NREGA,” said a DC.