26 lakh migrant labourers stranded: Govt data | Economic Times

Over 26 lakh migrant labourers are stranded across 33 states during the Covid-19 outbreak with barely 10% lodged in government-run relief and shelter camps. A preliminary enumeration of stranded migrant labourers conducted by the Chief Labour Commissioner under ministry of labour and employment has revealed that over 26 lakh labourers are lodged in relief camps, workplaces managed by employers and other migrant clusters. A majority of the migrant labourers – 46% -- are in different migrant clusters. About 43% are in workplaces managed by employers and 10% are at shelters and relief camps. The data has been released after a strongly-worded directive from Central Information Commission (CIC) following a complaint by Right to Information (RTI) activist Venkatesh Nayak. The preliminary data reveals most number of migrants 10.58 lakh are in Chhattisgarh followed by Kerala 2.87 lakh, Maharashtra 2.01 lakh, Tamil Nadu 1.93 lakh, Telangana 1.84 lakh and Andhra Pradesh 1 lakh. The statistics, however, do not reveal how many migrant labourers belong to which state. The chief labour commissioner had initiated this enumeration exercise during Lockdown 1.0 with lakhs of labourers trying to get back to their native villages. On April 8, Chief Labour Commissioner Rajan Verma had written a letter to regional centres, “Number of migrant workers are stranded and placed in various temporary shelters/ relief camps arranged by state government authorities, employers at work place itself and also there are some localities where migrant workers are generally clustered. In view of this a comprehensive data in respect of the migrant workers are urgently required within three days.” Nayak had filed an RTI application to get the number of migrant workers stranded, district-wise numbers of male and female migrant workers, sector-wise breakup of migrant workers and the states to which they belonged. While he did not get any data from Chief Labour Commissioner, a complaint was filed before CIC, which took a grim view and directed commissioner to reveal data in whatever form was available. The preliminary enumeration shows that six states – Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Sikkim do not have a single migrant labourer in relief camp or shelter homes largely managed by the state governments. The Centre has been asked to update this data periodically as this would help the state governments in understanding the problem at hand.STATE MIGRANT WORKERSChhattisgarh 10.86 lakhKerala 2.87 lakhMaharashtra 2.01 lakhTamil Nadu1.93 lakhTelangana 1.84 lakhAndhra Pradesh 1 lakhRajasthan 92,883Karnataka88,852Odisha 56,622Haryana 48,195Gujarat 47,566Uttar Pradesh 36,421Assam 25,926Delhi 20,783Jharkhand 16,616Uttarakhand 9650Madhya Pradesh 9621Tripura8201Nagaland 7762Bihar7719Goa7678Himachal Pradesh 5541Arunachal Pradesh 3057Andaman and Nicobar Islands 2472Punjab 2040Puducherry2031West Bengal 1867Mizoram768Meghalaya1864Chandigarh 1199