-TheWire.in The government's secrecy around the issue assumes significance amidst a political row between the opposition parties and the Centre. New Delhi: In what appears to be a confirmation of the fact that the Centre was indeed making the home bound migrant labourers pay for their train journeys, the government on May 5 declined to share details of the ticket fares with the Supreme Court. During a hearing of social activist Jagdeep S....
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Locked down in distress -Sakina Dhorajiwala and Rajendran Narayanan
-The Indian Express Centre’s policy of monopolising decisions, socialising economic losses in the wake of Covid-19 has left migrant workers in the lurch The 40-day lockdown was further extended at a time of sporadic expressions of resistance and anger by migrant workers in a few cities. Extreme precarity doesn’t have a singular expression. While some are responding with anger, others are responding with resignation. The severe distress among migrant workers in India...
More »COVID-19: Odisha Workers Stranded Because They Don’t Have Aadhaar -Rakhi Ghosh
-TheWire.in migrant workers from Odisha tell The Wire they remain stranded because they don’t have Aadhar ID. Ironically, they missed out on Aadhar enrolment because they were away from their villages for work Bhubaneswar: migrant workers hailing from Odisha, stranded in different parts of India since the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus began on March 25, 2020, were relieved when the state government announced plans for their...
More »Smoke, mirrors and Modi: A grand illusion of governance -Samar Halarnkar
-Scroll.in Emotion and grand political statements may normally distract and attract voters. In a crisis, they are poor substitutes for governance. It is now 41 days since the government told the Supreme Court that there were no migrant workers on the road any more. “They have been taken to the nearest available shelter”, and 2.3 million were being fed, India’s Solicitor General told the judges, who – in a now familiar routine...
More »migrant Workmen Act, 1979, must be rationalised to remove requirements that disincentivise formalisation -KP Krishnan, Anirudh Burman & Suyash Rai
-The Indian Express The Act was enacted to prevent the exploitation of inter-state migrant workmen by contractors, and to ensure fair and decent conditions of employment. The fallout of the lockdown in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19 highlights the urgent need to rationalise the legislative framework for labour in India. migrant labour has been among the worst affected due to the lockdown. Their efforts to leave the cities before the...
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