The Bihar government on Tuesday doubled the compensation given to the families of migrant workers killed while working in other states and enhanced the amount given to the survivors of accidents.
The state is the largest contributor of the labour workforce across the country.
According to the changed rules, the next of kin of the migrant workers dying in other states will now get Rs 2 lakh instead of the existing amount of Rs 1 lakh.
Those who become fully disabled in an accident will be provided a grant of Rs 1 lakh instead of the previous Rs 75,000. The partially disabled workers will get Rs 50,000 instead of Rs 37,500 given to them earlier. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday.
“The cabinet approved the implementation of the amendments in the rules 5, 5a and 5b of the state migrant worker accident grant scheme under the labour resources department to facilitate enhanced compensation and grants in cases of death or accident of migrant workers from Bihar in other states,” cabinet department additional chief secretary S. Siddharth said.
Bihar joint labour commissioner Arvind Kumar told The Telegraph that the compensation on the death or disability of the migrant worker would be provided on the petition of his family members.
“Various documents like medical reports, copies of FIR, post-mortem reports need to be submitted with the claims form. The number of such claims is quite low for a state like Bihar. We normally process around 115 to 120 claims of death of migrant workers in a year,” Arvind said.
The labour resources department has no estimates of the number of migrants from the state. The disaster management department pegged the number at around 30 lakh when a large number of them returned home in an exodus-like situation during the lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
They were forced to return due to loss of employment and residential facilities, and a majority of them were quarantined at designated centres and their homes.
