Food rights activists, who had met Jharkhand food, public distribution and consumer affairs officials recently, have claimed that over 8 lakh migrant/unorganised workers registered in the e-shram portal are yet to be covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

The delegation, which comprised development economist Jean Dreze, state convenor of Right to Food Campaign Asharfi Nand Prasad and food activist Paran Amitava, had last week met the secretary of food, public distribution and consumer affairs, Amitabh Kaushal and raised the issue of migrant workers who are registered on the e-shram portal but continue to not have a ration card to avail food grains under the NFSA in violation of the recent Apex Court order. E-shram is a centralised database of the Centre of all unorganised workers, including construction, domestic and agriculture workers and street vendors.

“The secretary informed us that the state labour department has informed them that 14 lakh workers were registered on the e-shram portal but do not have a ration card. On verification, it was found that six lakh among them have a ration card. The total number of people, who are left for physical verification and distribution of ration cards, are approximately 8,04,740 lakh workers,” said Asharfi Nand Prasad.

The Right to Food campaign (an informal network of individuals and organisations committed to the realisation of the right to food) members requested the secretary to issue these ration cards within the next two months and ensure that the Centre releases an adequate amount of ration to be distributed to these new card holders.

“The secretary has agreed to our request and has already issued a directive in this connection to the deputy commissioners and concerned officials in each of the 24 districts in the state,” added Prasad.