Labour department’s action plan for migrants comes handy as Kerala goes into lockdown

The State Labour department’s choice to chalk out an action plan particularly for migrant staff has proved well timed with a State-wide nine-day lockdown kicking in on May 8 morning.

The plan submitted by the division for the wellbeing of the migrants and subsequently permitted by the federal government envisaged three totally different eventualities of which one was a State-wide lockdown. The different two potentialities have been the managed and uncontrolled unfold of the pandemic with no lockdown.

The Labour division has written to the State police chief to maintain a detailed watch on the state of affairs in migrant worker-intense Payipadu in Kottayam and Perumbavur in Ernakulam district within the occasion of a lockdown.

Instigated by misinformation campaigns by some unscrupulous components, migrant staff had hit the streets in massive numbers in violation of the primary lockdown final yr. The action plan goals at avoiding a repeat of that situation and desires the police to clamp down on any such misinformation campaigns and faux information.

The formation of district-level monitoring cells comprising of district collectors, native self-government representatives and labour officers is one other proposal. The cell will handle inter-department coordination if the opening of particular camps for migrants grow to be inevitable.

The plan envisages 4 forms of camps in such a situation.

Camps beneath the direct supervision of the district administration are proposed to be established and run with the assistance of the native our bodies, which is able to use their very own funds to function group kitchens to feed the inmates. Camps managed by labour contractors, by changing rented buildings of migrants into camps, and treating scattered shelters as camps have additionally been proposed.

Officials from the Labour division have been requested to continuously go to these camps in coordination with the police, native self-government, well being, income, motorized vehicle and transportation departments to make sure the wellbeing of the inmates and availability of important objects.

During the earlier lockdown, the division had run 21,556 camps accommodating 4.34 lakh migrants.

Engaging the Civil Supplies division in distributing meals kits with their most popular meals grains has additionally been proposed. In the occasion of an exodus of migrant staff via railway stations, particular registration counters to gather their information will probably be opened, for which a letter has already been written to the Railway Divisional Manager.

Special CoWin registration and facilitation centres for migrants as soon as the vaccination of these within the 18-45 age group will get underway, separate First Line Treatment Centres, guaranteeing cost of pending dues of migrants additionally determine within the action plan.