UP govt to form commission to map skills of migrant labourers

The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday said it will form a migration commission to identify the skills of returning migrant workers and provide employment to them. The government also plans to provide insurance to these workers.

“Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, while reviewing the lockdown situation in the state, directed that a migration commission be set up. By the efforts of the state government, till now, 23 lakh workers and migrants have returned to the state,” Awanish Awasthi, additional chief secretary, home and information, told reporters in Lucknow.

“The chief minister also decided to ensure that every migrant worker coming to Uttar Pradesh gets employment. The state government believes that in the wake of the pandemic, it is the first priority of the state government to bring back every migrant safely,” he added.

The chief minister also decided to offer insurance to secure the lives of migrant labourers and called for a scheme to ensure job security for them in the state.

“The Uttar Pradesh government has already started the process of skill mapping of migrant labourers so that they can be provided employment once they complete the quarantine period,” Awasthi said.

Such persons should be accommodated in different sectors on the basis of data found during skill mapping, the chief minister said at Sunday’s meeting.

“UP CM @myogiadityanathji announces to set up Migrant Commission. It will map details of migrants, their skills, provide training, ensure social security, employment and loan facilities among other things,” Shishir Singh, director of information and public relations in Uttar Pradesh posted on Twitter.

“About 43% of Delhi’s population are migrants, with more than half coming from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,” said a 2017 report of the working group on migration set up by the Union ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, quoting the 64th round of National Sample Survey.

In Mumbai also 43% of the population is migrants, with more than half of out-of-state migrants coming from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. There were 454 million migrants in India, according to the census of 2011, a figure that is likely to have risen manifold given the increase in population since then, the report said.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) governments in both Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have been under tremendous pressure to rehabilitate returning migrant labourers.

In a review meeting on Saturday, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said that the state government was committed to ensure that everyone will get the option of employment in the state based on their skills. “Migrants will be encouraged to be self-employed based on their skill set in the state. Our wish is that no one should be forced to leave and opportunities are created in Bihar itself. Several industry clusters too will get identified,” said an official release by state government on Saturday, quoting Kumar.

“We have been working with the Union government to ensure that these migrant labourers are able to get work. We are thinking of involving these labourers in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The first priority of the state government is to increase testing and reduce the sense of fear among the labourers who are returning to their villages,” a minister said.