As a little more than a million migrant labourers have registered with the State Government’s dedicated Covid-19 website and a large number of them have retuned back home triggered by uncertainty over th corona pandemic, it is time to map their skills to redraw livelihood strategies for them.
The Government should plan out both long-term and short term strategies so that the livelihoods of the migrant labourers are secured, thereby avoiding the risk of distress, human trafficking and re-migration through alternative pathways, said the outcome of a national level webinar.
The webinar was organised jointly by city based Focus Odisha Foundation and Mahashakti Foundation in collaboration with the Migrant Resources Centre and Migration Watch India on July 13. About 100 participants drawn from a cross section of society and representatives of civil society organizations from across the country participated to deliberate on the most pressing issue of the time migrant crisis.
While making a lead presentation, executive director of Action Aid Association India and co-chair of World Urban Campaign of UN Habitat Sandeep Chachra underlined the need for rebuilding livelihoods strategies and ensuring social safety net for both returned migrants and informal workers.
Dr Niranjan Sahoo from the Observer Research Foundation stressed the need for ensuring legitimate entitlements of migrant workers.
“It’s good that MGNREGS has provided 50 percent jobs to a huge population of jobless people during the last couple of months in rural hinterlands and created 1.2 million man days in this period, but if we will not properly implement the Pradhan Mantri Graiba kalyan Yojana, food security packages and a slew of programmes announced for migrants benefit, millions of people will be getting to poverty trap again,” said Sahoo.
State head of UNDP Abha Mishra in her presentation highlighted the need for mapping the skills.
Shaonli Chakraborty of Bengalure based nation level forum Covid Action Collaborative called upon civil society actors, industries, Governments to redirect their priorities for the resettlement and restoration of jobs.
Mumbai based CSR Head of ACC Ltd Pratyush Panda questioned how skill persons can be engaged in MGNREGS work which is largely for unskilled rural wage workers.
Convenor of Covid-19-Civil Society Initiative and Migration Watch India Sudarshan Chhotoray while outlining the context described how Corona pandemic has exposed vulnerability for a large section of economically backward population.
Prominent among the guests who spoke were senior journalist and foreign affairs expert Gopal Misra, convenor of OIKTREE Initiatives William Stanley, president of ADHIKAR N Amin, joint secretary of Utkal Samaj Madras Biswajit Kanungo and president of Mahashakti Foundation Santosh Kumar Mishra.
