Representative image
NEW DELHI: India will soon undertake a gigantic exercise of registering all migrant workers and specifying their occupational skill at village, block and district levels, an exercise the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Centre and states to complete to help provide employment to over 1 crore migrant workers who have returned their native places following the lockdown.
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M R Shah said in a 30-page order, “Majority of stranded workers have reached their native places. The second major task now to be undertaken by the concerned states and Union Territories is to take care of those migrant workers who have returned to their native places after cessation of their employment.”
The UP government recently claimed that it has completed skill mapping of all 23.5 lakh migrant workers who returned to the state. The bench directed the Union government to give details of all schemes, so that workers who have migrated to their native places could avail the benefits.
“All states and Union Territories shall also give details of all schemes which are currently operating in the states/UTs, benefits of which can be taken by the migrant labourers, including different schemes for providing employment.”
The necessary details have to be laid before the Supreme court before July 8, the next date of hearing. The court said it was one thing to have schemes and quite another for workers to have knowledge of them. “The state shall establish counselling centres, help desks at block and district level to provide all necessary information regarding government schemes and extend helping hand to migrant labourers ,” it said.
