Inform status of welfare schemes for migrant sugarcane workers: HC

The development came after the HC took suo motu cognisance of news reports which highlighted the plight of workers. The news reports said that the migrant workers do not get medical facilities and live in miserable conditions leading to violation of their fundamental rights.

Mumbai: With a view to ensure that migrant workers and their families from drought-hit parts of the Marathwada region get proper healthcare facilities and a better environment while they are away from their homes, the Bombay high court has directed the state government to include sugar mill owners and government officials in the panel constituted to provide facilities and strengthen the welfare mechanism for the migrant workers.

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The development came after the HC took suo motu cognisance of news reports which highlighted the plight of workers. The news reports said that the migrant workers do not get medical facilities and live in miserable conditions leading to violation of their fundamental rights.

On July 8, advocate general Birendra Saraf for the state had informed the division bench of acting chief justice Nitin Jamdar and justice Arif Doctor that the Labour Department had filed an affidavit stating that a Welfare Corporation (WC) for migrant workers had been notified in 2019. The WC held regular meetings before the beginning of the season to take stock of the welfare schemes in place for such workers.

The affidavit had stated that in its recently held meeting as a preparation for the upcoming season of 2023, the department had decided to form state and district-level committees to review the schemes and initiatives for sugar factory workers. The department had also formulated an action plan wherein every factory would be inspected and workers would be interviewed to gauge what facilities would be made available to them.

The departments’ affidavit added that awareness programs were being conducted regarding the rights of migrant workers and welfare schemes as well.

The bench was also informed that the Sugar Corporation would insure the sugarcane factory workers for accidental death, loss of both limbs, loss of eyesight, permanent disability, hospitalisation, insurance cover for the tenement, and loss of bullock and this would cover workers in over 100 sugar mills.

On Tuesday, senior advocate Amit Desai who has been appointed as Amicus Curiae to assist the court in the case sought to know when the initiatives mentioned in the affidavit would be implemented.

After hearing the submissions, the bench directed that the WC be made a party to the case so that its composition and what progress was made towards the welfare of workers could be ascertained. The bench held that in making the WC a party, all sugar mill factories would also become a party, and posted the hearing to August 4.