Migrant workers vulnerable once more, say activists
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A 12 months after lakhs of workers made their manner again to their dwelling States after the nationwide lockdown was introduced in March 2020, their situation has not modified a lot.
With State governments saying lockdowns and curfews within the wake of rising COVID-19 instances, migrant workers may as soon as once more be observing lack of wages and lack of social protections, labour union leaders and activists stated on Thursday.
A 12 months after lakhs of workers made their manner again to their dwelling States after the nationwide lockdown was introduced in March 2020, their situation has not modified a lot, they stated.
Also learn | Migrant workers face debt, job loss and separation from families
“Workers in the informal sector think that if there is a lockdown again, they could be stranded and so have started returning to their villages. After the lockdown last year, many of these workers could not get back their jobs as the contractors who hired them did not want to take the responsibility of paying them lockdown wages,” stated All-India Trade Union Congress basic secretary Amarjeet Kaur.
She added that unions had acquired reviews of workers leaving from Lucknow, the Delhi-National Capital Region, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
“The government has learnt no lessons. To me it appears that the government knew that the economy was in a bad state last year and they imposed the lockdown with four hours of notice, blamed the bad economy on the pandemic, while playing with the lives of the workers. The workers have learnt that the government won’t do anything for them; they are protecting themselves [by leaving cities],” she stated.
Data | 80% of urban workers lost jobs during coronavirus lockdown: survey
Workers within the casual sector have already begun to face wage loss due the curfews and lockdowns in some States like Maharashtra and National Capital Territory of Delhi.
Nirmal Gorana, the overall secretary of the Bandhua Mukti Morcha that works to free bonded labour, stated with the Delhi authorities on Thursday saying weekend curfew, a rush of migrant workers leaving the Capital might be seen on Friday night. He questioned whether or not the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board would pay the workers for the lack of two days of wages each week.
“The night curfew has already affected sex workers, construction workers and auto-rickshaw drivers. There is fear among workers… The job loss, hunger will be worse this time as the COVID-19 cases are much worse,” he stated. The authorities did not take actions like lowering the working hours of casual sector workers and getting them registered for social safety advantages.
Full protection | Lockdown displaces lakhs of migrants
Chandan Kumar, of the Working People’s Charter, added that almost all casual sector workers had not acquired their wages for the lockdown in 2020 regardless of authorities instructions, and have been going through the identical disaster they did final 12 months.
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, in the meantime, was organising consciousness camps for workers to scale back vaccine hesitancy, stated BMS basic secretary Binoy Kumar Sinha. He stated with the vaccine now accessible, the state of affairs for workers wouldn’t be prefer it was final 12 months.
“We had set up helpdesks and organised food for workers last year. This time, the requirement has not come,” he stated.
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