State, Centre launched schemes, but the poor don’t know about it, reveals survey

Even as the Centre and the state have announced several schemes for low-income groups to tide over the current crises owing to the lockdown, a ground report by non-profit

Even as the Centre and the state have announced several schemes for low-income groups to tide over the current crises owing to the lockdown, a ground report by non-profit organisation Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (Yuva) has revealed that many households are either not among the beneficiaries or are unaware about them.

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Yuva surveyed 7,515 households across six civic corporations – Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Panvel and Ulhasnagar – between March 20 and April 28. The observations were revealed in the interim report ‘Access to entitlements and relief among the urban poor in the Mumbai Metropolitan region during Covid-19,’ which was released on Monday.

The report has stated that while the Centre had directed states to utilise ₹3,100 crore under the Building and Construction Workers Welfare Fund to support construction workers who have been left without any income owing to the lockdown, only 5.29% of those surveyed in 1,237 households had been registered with the Building and Other Construction Workers’ (BoCW) Welfare Board. It also stated that 94% of the workers surveyed found themselves unable to avail the benefits of this scheme.

The state had also announced a payment of ₹2,000 to workers registered with BoCW through direct transfer in April. State labour commissioner Mahendra Kalyankar, however, said till date the state has disbursed ₹175 crore by depositing ₹2,000 in the accounts of construction workers. “We have also run many campaigns to get workers registered,” Kalyankar said.

S Srirangam, chief executive officer of the state BoCW, said till June 12, more than 8 lakh workers have benefitted from the scheme.

Pankaj Kumar, state development commissioner (unorganised sector), said, “As per the government’s directions, we had surveyed around 2 lakh migrant workers who were housed in relief camps across the state. We have also given 1.15 lakh workers temporary registration numbers. Once they are back from their villages, they will be registered with BoCW to avail benefits.”

The report stated that in the 3,873 households surveyed, only 32.27% members had bank accounts in the names of women to avail the direct cash transfers announced by the Centre for women (as well as senior citizens, the disabled and widows) in March.

The report further stated that although the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which provides free cylinders to women, had been expanded in March as a relief measure during the lockdown, merely 6.36% of the 3,646 houses surveyed had availed of the scheme.

In the six municipal corporations, only 1.13% of the more than 3,000 households surveyed have members who have been registered with the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM).

Pointing at the apparent limited outreach of these schemes, Yuva has also provided mid-term and long-term recommendations.

Some of these include provision of emergency ration cards to help workers secure food and fast-track registration of construction and domestic workers to enable direct transfers.

Marina Joseph from Yuva said, “No society, despite the best of funding or outreach can help all citizens. However, the state’s relief measures have to be strengthened. Despite introducing good schemes, the execution on ground is poor.”