How did migrant labour laws failed migrants? Ignored and
disheartened, labourers since ages have faced discrimination at the hands of
authorities, capitalists, as well as civic societies. All that was happening
beneath the ice surfaced when honourable Prime Minister announced
nationwide lockdown for the containment of the virus, which hit the nation
in the
last week of
March. He gave four hours to the
citizens to prepare for a locked life.
The chaos, following the
announcement birthing from the lack of
coordination between Centre
and State, of whose prime
example being of Interstate migrant labourers, who
similar to mass exodus were now returning to their native homes, thus throwing
light on the cracks in the implementation of highly ambitious welfare acts. Some of them being, Interstate Migrant
Workmen Act, 1979; Minimum Wages Act,
1948; the Contract Labour
( Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970;
The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976; and, the Building
and Other Construction
Workers (Regulation of Employment
and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996. Labour, being a subject of
concurrent list has
a girth of
laws aspiring for the betterment of workers both in
organised and unorganised sectors.
In total, there are 100 state and 40 central laws,
but an ironical situation arises when none
of these could assure stranded labourers minimum
wages, healthcare, a shelter to stay, food and other basic amenities, in order
to stop their outflow.
The grimace picture of labourers' journey
on foot towards their hundred
kilometres away home, continued to flash on tv screens, showing how the microbial virus has come with its own kind of class divide. Earning their
daily wages by pulling rickshaws, working at a construction site, selling vegetables, working in
factories and at
other places, these daily bread earners
saw their survival
getting hard in enclosed
spaces, with no earning and no
support from the government, alongside
the fear of virus
looming large over
their heads. The estimated
10 crore stranded
workforce, in spite of being
accounting for 10% of national GDP continue to face barriers
in their home as well as host states. Interstate Migrant Workmen Act, 1979. One of the major
laws, recognizing the unique category
of interstate migrants though has a commendable list
of rules mentioned
in it, but due
to its ineffective implementation, it proved harmful
to the migrants. The law recognizes
interstate workers as illiterate, unorganized, working under
extremely adverse conditions, therefore
see administrative and
legislative arrangements both in the home and host states of the workers, necessary.
| Source- Unsplash By-Atul Pandey |
Employment of Interstate migrant workmen in any establishment is
prohibited unless it's duly registered
under this Act.
It's applicable on establishments with
5 or more
interstate workers. The
conditions laid down in the Act,
demands the contractor to
obtain a license
from an authority of both the
states involved. A certificate of registration
before the employment
of interstate migrants which also contains the arrangement list under
which the recruitment would happen, the remuneration payable, hours of work and other
basic amenities to
be provided. A Chief Labour Commissioner( CLC) from
either of the states
visit the site
to ensure compliance
of the conditions proposed. Huge paperwork is thus, required by the
recruiters and as
well the officers appointed to
keep a check on the smooth functioning of
the laws. In states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat,
Delhi, etc. where
the cost of
local labour is
high, they engage in underreporting of the labourers.
The official data is collected by the state governments from employers and
licensed contractors who recruit migrant labourers. Underreporting of
recruitments often happen at this stage, when contractors provide a wrong data
where a lot of labourers are not
registered. This leads to a poor data collection, which is relied on by policymakers. What went wrong?
The inability of our Prime Minister, to foresee the mass the exodus of migrants and the inability of governments ( central and state)
and bureaucracy to
deal with it
show that the situation
wasn't in their list, this,
might have happened
because the 400
million population of
such workers never made it on
government papers. This large population doesn't have basic facilities of PDS
and healthcare under government hospitals, unlike farmers who benefit ( though
inadequate) from several government
schemes and labourers
in rural areas who
benefit from MNREGA, due
to their inability to acquire an
Unique Identity Card
which requires a
permanent address whereas they
continue to cross boundaries
of states in
a month or two in
the search of a
better livelihood. And, it would be disrespectful to say that what
they want is
just, a life free from starvation and few pennies in their
hands, which could
have been easily
availed under MNREGA in rural areas. They want something
more than a meal twice a day which is ‘better opportunities’ to earn themselves
a meaningful life. It is a huge shame
in the part
of both the
home and host states who neither could assure good
working conditions and
basic amenities to
these hardworking people, nor could respect their work
which helped them
in gaining the desired economy at low rates and no facilities. Apart
from the conscious problems,
the ineffectiveness of law reveals the institutional problem of
too much relying on socialist laws and its
socialist enforcement. As legal coercion
with ideal conditions has
been seen as
adequate for creating good outcomes but not covered under
these laws are, basic flaws
like compliance costs, government capacity for enforcement,
corruption and most importantly counterproductive consequences. For example-
the onerous requirements set out in the
Act, incentivize contractors and inspectors to under-report
interstate workmen rather than to register
them. This leads to a failed attempt at formalizing this highly informal sector. Another
idea of, providing
the migrants with unique
identification and linking it
with JAM trinity
( Jan- Dhan, Aadhar
and Mobile) to bring them under the formal net
and enabling them for
direct cash transfers
ignores the very
fact that only 345 million
are availing smartphone facilities,
rests still have
a long way
ahead of them. What is being
done? As a part of reforming labour laws, a Bill has been introduced in the
Parliament called the Occupational
Safety, Health and
Working Conditions Code
of 2019 that seeks to merge 13 labour laws, Interstate
Migrants Workmen Act,
1979 is one
of the laws
that are being merged. This also ignores the uniqueness of migrant workmen and
count them in domestic labourers. The changes, few
state government has
proposed under the
light of pandemic and flattened
GDP curve because of it, including suspension of
labour laws in states
like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh and others
to attract investments
reflects how less
concerned our governments are for these miserable workers. The model of
Odisha government and Kerala government can be taken into consideration which
have set
up helplines like
Shramik ( labour force) Sahayata to the migrant
workers pioneered schemes such as Kerala Migrant Workers Welfare Scheme 2010, respectively. The former help migrant
workers in two specific areas: 1. Legal rights 2. Financial awareness, while the
latter offers financial
support for treatment
of migrants for ailments, grant
for their children's children in Kerala and retirement benefits to those who complete five years under the scheme and
migrant labourer provident funds. Such models can be replicated by other states
at provincial and regional levels and by the centre at the national level.
REFERENCES
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WRITTEN BY ANJUMAN YADAV
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