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Parliamentary panel for policy to tap global labour market potential, migrant workers database
The standing committee for the external affairs ministry made the recommendations in its latest report on issues related to migrant workers that was submitted to Parliament this month. The panel expressed concern at existing arrangements for the protection, safety and welfare of Indian migrants.
The government should frame a policy on migration to tap the full potential of the global labour market and maintain a database of migrant workers to ensure their rights and tackle their grievances, a parliamentary panel has said.
The standing committee for the external affairs ministry made the recommendations in its latest report on issues related to migrant workers that was submitted to Parliament this month. The panel expressed concern at existing arrangements for the protection, safety and welfare of Indian migrants based on “inadequate data infrastructure”.
The committee said the size and spread of migration has seen significant changes in the past three decades, including a trend of skilled Indians moving to the 36 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation while unskilled and low skilled workers were going to the Gulf region.
During testimony by then foreign secretary S Jaishankar in April 2017, the panel learnt the external affairs ministry had been collecting data only on migrant workers with Emigration Check Required (ECR) passports. After external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj held a meeting with the home secretary, the National Security Adviser and the Intelligence Bureau chief on data sharing and access was gained to data on workers with Emigration Check Not Required (ECNR) passports, it was found the number of ECNR passport holders going abroad in a 12-month period was almost five times the number of ECR passport holders.
Jaishankar described the data as an “eye-opener” as about 350,000 to 400,000 Indians had travelled on ECR passports in the 12-month period, while the number of Emigration Check Not Required passport holders travelling for employment was more than 1.9 million.
S Irudaya Rajan, an author and migration expert from Kerala, said, “I feel there should be a separate ministry to handle migration. It is difficult to get the exact number but we can have the details of flow... It is high time we have such details.”
