This story is from April 30, 2020

Voluntary organisations track migrant labours from Birbhum, Murshidabad, Malda, N Dinajpur

Voluntary organisations track migrant labours from Birbhum, Murshidabad, Malda, N Dinajpur
KOLKATA: Voluntary organisations, working with the migrant workers of West Bengal, have so far tracked 45,000 workers stuck in other states. Most of the workers they could track, the organizations said, are from North and South 24 Parganas, Birbhum, Murshidabad, North Dinajpur and Malda.
In a report submitted with the chief minister Mamata Banerjee two days back, these organisations have sought the state government’s intervention to send relief to the workers.
These organisations, already been working with the migrant workers, have been trying to make arrangement with the help of partner organisations in other states so far. With more number of migrant workers being reportedly stuck in other states, they have sought the government’s help.
While there is no consolidated data as many of the organisations are working individually, in a report submitted with the state government some of the organisations have pointed out that so far, they were able to track 45,000 migrant workers stuck in different parts of the country. Most of the workers located in places like Maharashtra, Gujarat, New Delhi and Tamil Nadu are facing issues with getting supplies. “All of them reached us through our helplines or through partner organisations in different states. Since many of them are located inside red zones, in several cases our partner organisations are finding it difficult to reach those areas,” said Debabrata Roy of Ganadabi Udyog-Solidarity Network.
Number of migrant workers are huge in areas like Gandhinagar, NCR, Chirag Delhi, Tirupur, Dharavi, Thane and Pune. It is gradually becoming impossible for the organisations to maintain a steady flow of relief due to paucity of funds as new hunger hotspots are emerging across the states. In absence of any systemic policy for relief to the migrant workers, many of them are remaining left behind. “We started getting requests for help a few days after the lockdown was enforced. There were people from across the states, who were denied any help by their employers. Most of these workers belong to the unorganized sector and there is no data about them,” said Tanmay Ghosh of Bangla Sanskriti Mancha.
“Most of these workers are not covered under PDS schemes in those states. So, they are entirely dependent on the micro level administration for receiving relief. Moreover, most of the states barring Kerala and Tamil Nadu do not have any record of incoming migrant workers. That has created a bigger challenge for the respective state governments to reach out to them,” said Soumya Chatterjee of Migrant Worker Solidarity.
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Rohit Khanna

Rohit Khanna covers sectors like government finance, economy, industry and issues related to financial crime.

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