The Modi Government has no clue about the number of migrants who died during the nationwide lockdown announced on March 24 to curb the spread of Covid-19 outbreak in the country. The Government also has no data of job loss to migrant workers during the lockdown.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment further informed the Lok Sabha in written replies that it did not have any report of forced retention of migrant labourers who wanted to return to their home States.
Many migrant workers lost their lives during the 68-day nationwide lockdown. Several migrant workers, who either walked or travelled in other private vehicles, met with accidents throughout the lockdown period.
According to the Ministry, 1.04 crore migrant workers returned to home States during lockdown.
According to the database available on the website of public interest technologist Thejesh GN, over 900 people had died due to lockdown-related reasons such as starvation, suicide and road accidents while returning to their homes till July 4.
Responding to another question on whether the Government has done any assessment of the job loss among migrant workers due to the Covid-19 crisis and if so, the details thereof, the Ministry said, “No such data is maintained.”
In reply to question regarding the number and details of migrant workers, labourers, daily wagers for whom the arrangement of job has been made, the Ministry said “no such data is maintained”.
Another question was asked about the details of reasons to withhold the migrant labourers due to corona and non-availability of prompt facility of their shelter and food, the Ministry said forced retention during Covid-19 has not been reported.
The Ministry said the Centre did not maintain any State-wise break-up of the distribution of free ration and other subsidies being provided to migrant workers.
Over 1.04 crore migrant workers returned to their respective home states during the lockdown with Uttar Pradesh topping the list with 32.4 lakh workers, followed by Bihar (15 lakh) and Rajasthan (13 lakh), the Ministry informed Parliament.
More than 4,611 Shramik Special trains were run by the Railways since May 1 to ferry migrants to their home states and over 63.07 lakhs were shifted to various destinations in UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and other States.
As per the World Bank report in April this year, the nationwide lockdown, which started on March 25, has impacted the livelihood of nearly 40 million internal migrants. Small traders, hawkers and daily wage labourers were the worst hit by the lockdown in April, comprising 91.2 million of the jobs lost from the total loss of 121.5 million in that month.
According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), about 21 million salaried employees lost their jobs during April-August, with about 3.3 million jobs being lost in August and 4.8 million in July.
