Parliamentary panel on labour backs expansion of MGNREGS to migrant workers

Hungry, thirsty migrants kept on walking miles to reach their villages. (Image: Reuters)

The Labour Standing Committee of the Parliament recommended that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) should be extended to inter-state migrant workers.

"The committee is of the firm opinion that there is no better scheme than the MGNREGS to provide sustainable livelihood to the unskilled workers including the inter-state migrant labourers," the panel said in its report.

The report titled 'Social Security and Welfare Measures for Migrant Workers' was prepared by a panel headed by Bhartruhari Mahtab.

"In fact, by enacting the MGNREGA Law in 2005, the Indian Parliament had set in motion a process that provides for a specific and significant welfare provision, constitutive of the very idea of citizenship," the report added.

The committee also urged the Centre to put in place a credible database of unorganised workers, especially migrant labourers, to ensure seamless delivery of relief packages to them at the time of distress.

The absence of reliable and authentic data on the number of migrant workforce and their movement back to their home states following the outbreak of the pandemic has apparently impacted the relief and rehabilitation measures, the report observed.

The panel urged the government to persuade both the native as well as the destination states to identify, collect and periodically update the record of such workers.

According to the report, there has been no element of social audit prescribed.

The government told the panel that as on July 9, 2020, 86,14,785 migrant workers returned home and 1,90,054 migrant workers stayed back.

The committee hoped that the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant challenges and lacunae observed in the system in the distribution of instant and immediate relief to the needy migrant labours are duly taken note of and appropriate lessons learned to iron out the systemic flaws and inadequacies so as to strengthen the preparedness to effectively deal with any such emergent situations.