Provisions for migrant workers in the Union budget are merely cosmetic

Union Budget 2021-22 has several provisions for migrant workers in India. Such provisions were desired and expected, but they are too little to enthuse them to return to their working places that they were forced to leave during the outbreak of the pandemic. Most of the announcements are cosmetic in nature beautifying the document and the face of the government, but not the cruelty lying there under against the working class.

Some announcements were, of course, anticipated in the backdrop of the plight of the migrant workers during the lockdown which had drawn attention of the people both from India and abroad. They suffered hardship and starvation at their workplaces due to drying up their source of income and government help not reaching them in time. Millions of them tried to return to their homes hundreds of killometres away even on foot, and hundreds of them perished in their effort. The government came under severe criticism for its callousness, and even a member of the Niti Aayog had admitted that they could have been treated better.

The four labour laws that were amended and introduced after the lockdown, providing instrument for exploitation of the workforce, will remain. It means, the workforce will not have protection against slashing of their wages and extending their hours of working above eight hours without additional payment.

The announcement in the budget that all categories of migrant workers would receive minimum wages is not a big deal, because the minimum wage in India which was increased to Rs 160 per day in 2015 was increased to only Rs 178 per day in 2020. Survival on this meagre amount is most difficult thing for a family of five. The amount could not take care of the needs of food, clothing, residence, and health.

Even if skilled workers are not protected against the wage-cut and compulsion of working hard for long hours, the implementation of the four labour codes has emboldened the employers. Workers’ real interests are already pledged in favour of so called labour reforms, and the audacity of our government is such that the Finance Minister has announced, “We will conclude a process that began 20 years ago with the implementation of the four labour codes.”

Not only that, she patted herself by saying, “For the first time globally, social security benefits will extend to gig and platform workers. Minimum wages will apply to all categories of workers, and they will all be covered by the Employees State Insurance Corporation.”

She perhaps forgot that out of the 140 million migrant workers, the majority are working in informal sectors of the economy where the facilities like ESI are not applicable. Therefore, such a provision will benefit only a handful of migrant workers.

It has been announced that a portal will be launched to collect relevant information on gig, building, and construction workers. “This will help formulate health, housing, skill, insurance, credit and food schemes for migrant workers,” our Finance Minister has announced. To this one can just remember the statement of the government on compensation to migrant workers who died while returning to home during the pandemic. The government had said that they don’t have records.

In fact, the government does not care to have any authentic record of workforce in the country. Even International Labour Organisation (ILO) has stated several times that India needs reliable records. And just think – this government is also in the helm of affairs for the last seven years! They have promised to prepare records to formulate better schemes. By the time they would be implemented, years of time will be lost without anything concrete on the ground.

Unemployment rate at the end of 2020 stood at 9 per cent, which is too high to be filled up in near future. The budgetary support to business and industries are too little to substantially improve the situation. We are at such a level of joblessness despite the opening of almost all the sectors of the economy. Due to lack of job opportunities only a fraction of migrant workers could return to their old working places, and most of them will run pillar to post to get a job even on very low wages below the minimum wages applicable in that place or for the category of jog.

In this context, to reduce the poverty levels prevalent among the migrant workers, the budget has announced a scheme of “one country, one ration card”. It has been presumed that the migrant workers could get their ration from any fair price shop on their ration cards.

However, one should keep in mind, that majority of migrant workers live in slums, shanties, small crowded rooms, or in tents. They do not have facilities to even store the food grains in their houses for a month. The little amount of money with them does not allow them to store larger quantity either. They purchase small quantity of food items and consume it daily.

However, the fair price shops in India presently supply food grains for the whole month at a time not little by little on daily basis. The system is thus not likely to work for them without a suitable change. Thus, this scheme could also help only a fraction of migrant workers.

Affordable rental housing projects were announced earlier for the migrant workers, the progress of which has been very dismal. Such notified projects have been exempted from tax to ensure a roof over the migrant workers. How many housing units would be available to how many migrant workers in how much time is at present not known. The budget did not care to mention it. It is also not know how many unknown migrant workers engages in informal sector could avail this facilities.

Migrants workers in the formal sector of the economy may be able to get some of the benefits, but only if they return to their workplace. There is nothing in the budget that will benefit the migrant workers who had left their working places and are at home. Their status of migrant labour has been lost, and therefore they needed different types of support, such as employment guarantee wherever they are.

Since the budget for MGNREGA has been reduced, lesser number of them will get benefited in the rural areas. For urban areas, there is no such scheme of safety net at all.

Majority of migrant workers are unskilled. Labour intensive business and industries were not given sufficient incentives. Only a little incentive went to the sectors of production that require certain level of skill. It would change the migrant landscape for the worse. We require a comprehensive migrant policy, not just a few patches on the canvas.

Views expressed are personal

(IPA Service)