Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has called upon the Centre to form an action plan along with states on issues of migration and social security for workers.

"Our workers are the wheels of the country's economy and without ensuring their safety and security we cannot think of development. I would like to appeal to the Central government to take all states into confidence and make an action plan at the earliest on responsible migration, social security and social infrastructure for such workers," he said while delivering the keynote address at “Thinc Migration”, a series of webinars presented jointly by the Omidyar Network India and The Indian Express on Friday.

In his address on “Decoding India's internal migration”, Hemant said that while industry and infrastructure are necessary for the nation's growth, equally important was the future of workers and their families.

"Jharkhand is working on an action plan for ensuring security and safety of migrant workers. It is an issue which needs to be solved by all governments. After witnessing the pathetic plight of migrant workers during the Covid-19 pandemic it is time for us to wake up and work earnestly in finding a solution along with industrialisation and infrastructure growth," stressed Hemant.

Criticising the Union government for overlooking problems pertaining to inter-state migration of labourers while introducing fresh codes in labour laws, Hemant said, "In 2020, the Central government brought four labour codes instead of the 29 labour laws and I have been told that the labour codes have ignored the problems faced by workers during inter-state migration making…

“We emulate western policies in labour reforms but while doing so we neglect responsible migration, social security and social infrastructure policies. We should get over the myth that labour friendly policies are not industry friendly policies."

Hemant recalled the Jharkhand government’s agreement with Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to ensure that workers from Jharkhand were not exploited while toiling on projects. "However, I am hearing from districts that once again workers are being taken by middlemen in an unsafe manner. The Central government should frame a pan-India law against exploitation of such workers," said the chief minister.

While expressing condolences for the tragedy at Uttarakhand, Hemant said several workers from Jharkhand were still missing and that his government, along with the Uttarakhand government, was trying to trace them. He said the state government had also set up a control room to coordinate relief and rehabilitation.

Hemant said that several youths who had returned during the Covid-19 lockdown did not want to return to their workplace, which made his government launch the “CM Employment Generation Project (CMEGP)”. As per the programme, subsidy to youths have been hiked to 40 per cent from the earlier 25 per cent, while the need for a guarantor has been abolished.

The chief minister expressed shock that on the annual budget announced by the Centre, the provision for MGNREGS had been reduced by Rs 38,500 crore. He rued that in Jharkhand, the wage rate under MGNREGS was not even Rs 200 per day, which was grossly insufficient for workers in the present context. "I have appealed to the Union government to increase the wage rate from Rs 194 to at least Rs 295," he said.

The chief minister said that during the Covid-19 pandemic, Jharkhand scripted history in terms of MGREGS man days. "We created 9 crore man days and are committed to take it to nearly 11 crore man days under MGNREGS. We also topped in terms of timely payments to workers, number of agro-based schemes and personal benefit schemes in the country," he said.

The chief minister said that during the lockdown, the state government set up kitchens at highways and remote villages. The state spent Rs 38.75 crore to run 6,595 CM Didi Kitchens across 4,500 panchayats and set up 1,300 dal bhaat centres. Rs 14,00,000 was given to families of deceased migrant workers during.

The chief minister also highlighted how Jharkhand led from the front to bring back migrant workers during the lockdown period. "Over 600 migrant workers were airlifted from Leh-Ladakh and Andaman and Nicobar region, 8.50 lakh workers were brought home by 240 special trains and 600 buses were used to ferry workers from neighbouring states and Rs 25 crore was paid to over 2 lakh migrant workers through direct benefit transfer.

“We established a Covid-19 migrant control room on March 27 and launched a web portal in which nearly 7.50 lakh migrant workers registered. We have completed skill mapping of 5,30,541 workers. We were the first state to ferry migrants on a train and plane."

Hemant said that in the state budget, his government was determined to increase the purchasing capacity of people of Jharkhand with special focus on the rural sector in order to curb migration.