Jharkhand government launched the Safe and Responsible Migration Initiative (SRMI) on Thursday to enable systemic registration of migrant workers for monitoring and analysis in the source as well as the destination districts.

The government will have two help desks which will be known as ‘labour consulates’ in Ladakh Union Territory as well as in Kerala.

During the launch of the initiative, Jharkhand’s Chief Secretary Sukhdeo Singh said, “Human migration is a very complex topic. Our government is not against migrations. We also encourage it, if it is happening for good. But we saw a different side of this migration during the pandemic. SRMI aims to fill this gap.”

The launch was followed by two panel discussions which focussed on tracking women labourers who remain the most vulnerable, putting an end to the exploitative means, predicting distress migration and increased social security and welfare coverage for migrant workers.

During the panel discussion ‘inter-state migration-learnings from Covid-19 era’, Rajeshwari B, MGNREGA commissioner who was Dumka Deputy Commissioner said that during the two waves of Covid-19, one thing which became clear was that migrant workers were abandoned by their employers.

“Migration is something which is inherent to humans, but exploitation can be very damaging and the question is how can we ensure that these things never happen? Men do have issues, but women are more vulnerable and not all of them come forward to explain their problems. We need some sort of tracking methodology specially for women labourers,” she said.

Under the SRMI, a pilot project has been launched for Dumka, West Singhbhum and Gumla and a database of migrant workers who have gone for employment in places like Delhi, Kerala and Leh-Ladakh etc is being prepared.

The social, economic and legal rights of migrant workers will be ensured by coordinating with all these states and the project will be replicated in the entire state later.

The SRMI, an 18-month policy initiative, is anchored by the Department of Labour, Employment, Training and Skill Development and supported by the Omidyar Network India and implemented by a consortium of the Policy and Development Advisory Group (PDAG), Partnering Hope Into Action Foundation (PHIA), the Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID) and the Bharti Institute of Public Policy at the Indian School of Business (ISB).

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons