Bengaluru: Kerala wants to keep track of migrant workers, after one was arrested for the murder of a young Dalit woman, Jisha.
The government wants migrants to enroll in an insurance scheme, supposed to be announced in this week’s state budget, so that it will get to track information about domestic migrants in the state. It also plans to build shelters for migrants in some cities, to ensure they are not pushed into poverty or crime. But it is also at pains to make sure its moves are not seen as a headcount or a census of migrants — perhaps because of the negative political message this will send out, analysts say. There is already a “subliminal hostility against migrant labourers” after Jisha’s murder, says B.R.P. Bhaskar, a political analyst and journalist.
Kerala has 2.5 million migrant workers. The state’s population is 33 million. As per a 2013 study commissioned by the government, every fourth male between the ages of 20 and 64 in the state is likely to be a migrant. That proportion can be attributed to the huge number of Kerala men working in West Asia and elsewhere in India, Livemint reported.
“One way (to) track migrants is to ask them to compulsorily register when they arrive in the state. It’s impossible (to do this) because there’s no law that will allow the state to do that,” said K. Biju, Kerala’s labour commissioner.
“The other way to track them is to through the Inter-state Migrant Act, which is a central act, that puts the onus of liability of the labourer on the contractor. But it’s an old law, and many of the migrants are now arriving in the state without the help of any contractors,” Biju added.
Still, the state has to be seen to be doing something. “After the Jisha incident, there is a fear psychosis among Keralites that people coming from outside are sort of trouble makers,” Biju said.
The government is mindful of the unpopular effect any forced registration could have. So, it is launching an insurance scheme for migrants in the budget on 8 July, the idea being to incentivize registration as well as working in Kerala. “We will give tweak the (existing) software used for voluntary registration of migrants and use it for this insurance scheme, so as to capture some additional information about them,” said Biju.
That scheme could keep track of at least 80% of migrants, said Biju.
In addition, the government will soon inaugurate a handful of shelters for migrants.
The first such shelter, capable of accommodating 700 labourers, will be opened in Palakkad within four months, said Biju.
The Kerala High Court on 20 June observed that migrant labourers are isolated or treated like second-class citizens in the state, leading to a backlash in the form of crimes. Subsequently, the court ordered the closure of a run-down shelter, where migrants were housed by a contractor.
Kerala can’t really manage without migrant workers, according to experts such as S. Irudaya Rajan, a professor at the Thiruvananthapuram-based Centre for Development Studies (CDS).
“For all jobs, you only get migrant labourers nowadays,” says M.G.S. Narayanan, former director of the Indian Council for Historical Research and a resident of Kozhikode in Kerala.
But will the state’s plans to track migrants, even if it is only indirectly, work?
K.N Harilal, a former member of the state planning board and a CDS professor would like to see the contours of the government’s programmes and incentives before commenting. He adds that given the state’s focus on worker rights, any discrimination of migrants will not go unchallenged. “If there is discrimination, people in Kerala itself, especially the activists and the trade unions, will take a position against the government,” he said.