Lockdown 2.0 Update: Govt order on migrant workers resuming work explained
Migrant workers will be allowed to work from tomorrow but only in the states where they are located currently, said the government.
The union home ministry has issued a standard operating protocol for the movement of stranded migrant labourers within the states and Union Territories from April 20, when additional commercial activities resume in non-coronavirus hotspots. The government notice says that these migrant workers could be engaged in industrial, manufacturing, construction, farming and MNREGA works and the local administration could follow the guidelines being issued to facilitate their movement within the geographical boundaries of the state and or a Union territory.
Here’s what this order means for hundreds of thousands of migrant labourers who are mostly living out of relief camps set up by state governments.
1. A registration exercise will be carried out at the relief camps for migrants where their skills will be noted to identify their work area like construction, manufacturing, sanitisation etc.
2. Migrant workers will be transported to their place of work within the state if they express a desire to do so. But they will be first screened for the possibility of coronavirus infection and only those found with no symptoms will be allowed to return to their place of work.
3. In no condition will the migrant workers be allowed to move or transported outside the state or Union territory where they are located currently. That would mean that a migrant worker who was employed in Kerala but travelled to Karnataka before he was put up in a relief camp will not be allowed to return to Kerala and will need to find work in Karnataka for the time being.
4. Buses transporting migrants will have to be sanitized and the migrants will have to observe social distancing norms while travelling to their places of work.
5. The local authorites are also directed to provide food and water to the migrants for their journey to the place of work.
6.The migrant labourers who will continue to stay at the relief centres should be given nutritious food to ensure they stay healthy.