Lok Sabha Question No. 48 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-07-19
Subject: Migrant Worker
Ministry: LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT
Asked by: Annasaheb Shankar Jolle

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 48

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 19.07.2021

## MIGRANT WORKERS

## 48. SHRI ANNASAHEB SHANKAR JOLLE:

Will  the  Minister  of  LABOUR  AND  EMPLOYMENT  be  pleased  to state:

- (a)the steps taken by the Ministry to help migrants in this pandemic in the last one year;
- (b)whether  the  states  have  been  nudged  to  help  the  migrants  in  a systematic manner in the spirit of Cooperative federalism;
- (c)if so, the steps taken by different States for the same and if not, the
- reasons therefor;
- (d)whether the database envisaged for the same has been operational;
- and
- (e)if so, the details of the same and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT

## (SHRI BHUPENDER YADAV)

- (a) to (c): Government  of  India  has  taken  several  measures  and initiatives  to  address  the  challenges  and  threats  to  migrant  workers posed by Covid-19. The details are at Annexure.

In  the  second  wave  of  COVID-19,  with  a  view  to  ensuring food  security,  health  safety  and  transport  facilities  to  the  migrant workers,  the  Ministry  of  Labour  &  Employment  has  been  regularly conducting  review  cum  coordination  meetings  with  the  States  and 13.05.2021,

UTs.  Till  now,  eight  such  meetings  have  been  conducted  via  VideoConferencing on 13.04.2021, 23.04.2021, 06.05.2021, 20.05.2021, 27.05.2021, 03.06.2021 and 10.06.2021.

(d) to (e): Ministry of Labour & Employment is developing a comprehensive  National  Database  for  Unorganized  Workers  (NDUW) seeded with Aadhaar for all Unorganised workers including Construction  Workers,  Migrant  Workers,  Gig  and  Platform  workers, Street Vendors,  Domestic Workers, Agriculture Workers, Migrant workers  and  similar  other  workers,  seeded  with  Aadhaar  to  address various  challenges  and  issues  related  to  the  delivery  of  benefits  of welfare schemes meant for them. The process for dry run and security audit is underway.  National Informatics Centre (NIC) is the technical partner in the project and Rs. 45.39 Crore has already been released to NICSI for required software development and hardware purchases in January/ February 2021.

The project is expected to commence the registration work by August, 2021 after addressing all critical technical issues. Thereafter,  the  State  Governments  are  to  populate  the  data  on  the portal  through  mobilising  the  unorganised  workers.    The  Common Service Centre through its nation -wide network of over 4 lakh centres and  selected  post  offices  of  the  Department  of  Posts  will  work  as enrollment  centres  where  workers  can  visit  and  register  themselves free of cost.

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## ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (a)  TO  (c)  OF  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.48 FOR 19.07.2021 REGARDING MIGRANT WORKERS.

Government  of  India  has  taken  several  measures  and  initiatives  to  address  the challenges and threats to migrant workers posed by Covid-19. Some of these are briefly mentioned as follows:

- (i)  The  Central  Government  has  issued  comprehensive  Advisory  Guidelines  on 27.07.2020 to all the States/UTs for the welfare of the migrant workers returning to the destination States in the backdrop of Covid-19. The States/UTs have been advised to implement the advisory guidelines by quickly gearing up their Labour Law enforcement machinery and ensuring statutory compliance by all the stakeholders which could provide migrant workers much needed help to mitigate the financial  crisis  and  empower  them  to  deal  with  the  pandemic.  The  States/UTs have  also  been  advised  to  maintain  updated  data  of  the  migrant  workers  to facilitate  the  administration  to  extend  benefits  of  the  welfare  schemes  of  the Government to the migrant workers.
- (ii) Advisories were issued to all State/UT Governments to advise all the Employers of  Public/Private  establishments  to  extend  their  cooperation  by  not  terminating their  employees,  particularly  casual  or  contractual  workers  from  job  or  reduce their wages.
- (iii)  The  Government is providing fiscal stimulus of more than rupees twenty seven lakh crore as part of the Aatmanirbhar financial Package. Aatmanirbhar Bharat package  comprises  of  various  long  term  schemes/  programmes/  policies  for making  the  country  self-reliant  and  to  create  employment  opportunities  for organised and unorganised sectors.
- (iv)  Ministry  of  Labour  &  Employment  under  Pradhan  Mantri  Garib  Kalyan  Yojana (PMGKY),  has  contributed  both  12%  employer's  share  and  12%  employee's share under Employees Provident Fund (EPF), totaling 24% of the wage for the wage month from March to August, 2020 for the establishments having upto 100 employees with 90% of such employees earning less than Rs. 15000/-. Under the PMGKY scheme Rs 2567.20 crore was credited in EPF accounts of 38.85 lakhs eligible employees through 2,63,272 establishments.
- (v)   Aatmanirbhar  Bharat  Rozgar  Yojna  (ABRY)  Scheme  has  been  launched  with effect  from  1 st October,  2020  to  incentivize  employers  for  creation  of  new employment  along  with  social  security  benefits  and  restoration  of  loss  of employment  during  COVID-19  pandemic.  This  scheme  being  implemented through  the  Employees'  Provident  Fund  Organisation  (EPFO)  reduces  the financial burden of the employers of various sectors/industries including MSME and encourages them to hire  more  workers.  Under  ABRY,  the  Government  of India  is  bearing  for  a  period  of  two  years,  both  the  employees'  share  (12%  of wages) and employers' share (12% of wages) of contribution payable or only the employees' share,  depending  on  employment  strength  of  the  EPFO  registered establishments.  As  on  14 th July,  2021  total  benefit  has  been  given  to  86,610 Establishments covering 23,58,653 beneficiaries under ABRY.
- (vi)  Statutory PF contribution of both employer and employee was reduced to  10% each from existing 12% each for all establishments covered by EPFO for three months.

(vii)Government  of  India,  under  Pradhan  Mantri  Garib  Kalyan  Rozgar  Abhiyan (PMGKRA),  has  taken  various  initiatives  to  boost  rural  infrastructure  and  rural economy  to  provide  local  employment  opportunities  particularly  to  the  migrant returnees. It covered 116 districts of 6 States with a resource envelope of Rs 50,000 crore  and  was  implemented  in  a  mission  mode  campaign  of  125  days  through Ministry of Rural Development.

(viii)The  unemployment  benefit under  the  Atal  Beemit  Vyakti  Kalyan  Yojana  being implemented  by  the  Employees'  State  Insurance  Corporation  (ESIC)  has  been enhanced to 50% from 25% of the average earning, payable upto 90 days, alongwith relaxation of eligibility conditions to claim the benefit, for insured workers who have lost employment due to COVID-19.

(ix)Underlining the need for coordinated efforts of the Central and State Governments,  as  labour  being  a  concurrent  subject,  it  was  requested  that officers in the Labour Departments may be sensitised about the 20 Control Rooms set  up  by  the  Ministry  of  Labour  and  Employment  under  the  Chief   Labour Commissioner  (Central)  on  pan  India  basis  to  resolve  the  grievances  of  workers, mainly wage related and migrant labour issues, arisen due to nationwide lockdown imposed to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization of Chief Labour Commissioner(C),  Ministry  of  Labour  &  Employment  has  received  a  number  of complaints regarding termination of  employment  of  workers  of the industrial establishment falling in the Central Sphere during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many of these  disputes  across  States  got  resolved  at  the  conciliation  stage  in  the  Central sphere.

(x)The  Ministry  also  forwarded  the  list  of  20  Central  Control  Rooms  to  the  State Governments  along  with  names  of  officers  deputed  by  the  Central  Government . Union  Minister  of  State  (Independent  Charge)  for  Labour  and  Employment  has requested various State/UT Governments on 18.4.2020 to designate a nodal officer from  Labour  Department  to  coordinate  with  Control  Rooms  set  up  by  Union Government for addressing issues of the  labour/workers in the country in view of the nationwide lockdown announced to combat COVID-19 pandemic.

(xi)Due to intervention of control rooms set up on 11 th April 2020 by the Ministry of Labour  &  Employment,  Govt.  of  India,  a  total  of  16623  complaints  were  received consisting of 12103 pertaining to State sphere and the rest in the Central sphere. An amount  of  Rs.  295  crore  (approx.)  was  got  disbursed  to  1,86,365  workers  in  the central sphere due to substantial intervention and coordination work done by control rooms  under the CLC(C). These control rooms were reactivated on 21 st April, 2021 after the second wave of Covid-19. As on 16 th June, 2021, a total of 1311 complaints were received comprising of 837 complaints from State sphere and the rest from the Central sphere. An amount of Rs 6.06 crore got disbursed to 4653 workers in the central  sphere  due  to  intervention  and  coordination  work  done  by  these  control rooms.

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