The government will create a database for migrant workers across India so that it may announce a relief package for the ones most affected by the nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus.
The database that is going to be set up by April 11 will ensure if the workers have bank accounts - opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan scheme or otherwise says a report by Business Standard.
The database will also determine if the migrant workers get free gas cylinders under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.
The home ministry, as well as the labour ministry, has approached the state governments so that the database can be developed in coordination with the chief labour commissioner’s (CLC’s) office, a senior labour and employment ministry official told the publication.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
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The database will primarily be collected from relief camps, employers who have migrant workers at their workplace and from localities where migrant workers typically stay in a cluster. It also will be collected from shelters run by non-governmental organisations and companies.
The migrant workers will be asked about their native place and where they previously stayed. This is to ensure the pattern of migration across the country.
As per a government official quoted in the report, if the lockdown is extended, the database will help the government announce contingency measures for the workers.
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“But this idea is at a nascent stage as it will depend on the final decision on lockdown,” the official said as per the report.
The database will be used to sort out the nature of occupations the workers were involved in that include domestic work, agriculture, rickshaw pulling, construction work, food processing, work at brick kilns, security service and automobile work.
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