The Jalpaiguri district administration has received close to 5,500 applications from migrant workers and their family members at Duare Sarkar camps between September 10 and 17, seeking enrollment in the portal that the state government has launched for migrant workers.

The trend, district officials said, hints that the state’s initiative to gather the database of migrant workers who are employed in other states has received a positive response, especially from rural areas and tea estates.

In Jalpaiguri, the camps, which are an outreach drive by the Mamata Banerjee government at regular intervals to extend various assistance to people, started late as the model code of conduct was in force across the district owing to the Dhupguri Assembly bypoll on September 5.

From September 10 to 17, altogether 5,415 applications for enrollment in the Karmasathi portal were received across nine blocks and three municipalities of the district.

Among these, the highest number of applications came from Kranti (1,280) and Sadar (1,071) blocks of the district.

“The camps will continue till September 22. We expect the figure to go up during this period,” the official added.

Recently, the chief minister said that the state government wanted to prepare a comprehensive database of migrant workers. “It is necessary to locate them, and help them and their families during a crisis,” she had said.

Senior bureaucrats of the state decided that in the Duare Sarkar camps, a counter would be opened for enrollment of migrant workers.

“In most cases, the families are coming to camps with the data of migrant workers. Workers home on leave are also visiting the camps,” said an official monitoring the camps in a block.

The migrant database, sources said, will also help the district administration.

“Worried family members of migrant workers approach the panchayats, the DO office, and the local police station, wanting to know the whereabouts of the workers in case of an accident or a natural calamity. Once the enrollment is done, it would be easy to trace the worker,” said a source.

Also, the database at the district level would give a clear idea to the administration about the number of migrant workers.

“In due course, it would help the state to draw up plans so that workers can be provided with alternative earning options in their home state, like the Bhabishyat scheme to launch a business,” said an official.

A senior trade union leader said that in tea gardens, new recruitment has virtually stopped, and hence many youths become migrant workers. Also, some youths whose parents are tea workers don’t want to join the same job and move out. Many of them came to the Duare Sarkar camps.

“The administration should conduct door-to-door visits in tea gardens for information about migrant workers," said Mani Kumar Darnal, the general secretary of the Intuc-backed National Union of Plantation Workers.