By Siby Mathew

Jaipur, April 9, 2019: The Church in India is committed to accompany migrant workers, said Fr. Jaison Vadassery, secretary, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) Office for Labour.

“The economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation. If the dignity of work is to be protected, then the basic rights of workers must be respected—the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to the organization and joining of unions, to private property, and to economic initiative,” said Fr. Vadassery, who is also a member of International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) Asia Region.

Focusing on the problems of the unorganized and migrant workers, Fr. Vadassery said the issues of the migrant workers and the responsibility of the Catholic Church is to accompany them.

He was speaking at the North Zone meeting of the CBCI Office for Labour, on ‘Leadership Training on Migration and Labour’ at Gyandeep Pastoral Centre, Jaipur, Rajasthan State.

The April 4-5 meeting was organized to equip the leaders from the regions to help the migrants and unorganised workers. Forty two delegates from North and Agra Region attended the meeting.

The Northern part of India is the sending states of unskilled migrant workers, both within the country and abroad. The Catholic Church in this place feels that the workers who migrate to different states and abroad face hardships as they fail to go through the proper channels.

The two-day programme aimed at tackling the issues of migrant and unorganized workers.

Bishop Oswald Lewis of Jaipur, chairman, Agra Region Labour Commission, presented the social teachings of the church.

“The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. This belief is the basis of all the principles of our social teaching of the church,” he said.

“We believe that every person is precious that they are more important than things. The measure of every institution is to enhance the life and dignity of a person,” the prelate added.

Welcoming the messages of Pope Francis on the migrants, the prelate exhorted the participants to take conscious effort to welcome the migrant workers to the church and interact with them to assist them in their needs.

Ms. Christine Nathan, consultant International Labour Organization (ILO) and ICMC from Mumbai gave the leadership training on migration and labour.

She has been to policy and programme analysis with a rights perspective: situation/needs assessment, programme design, and proposal development, feasibility studies and appraisal.

“If the right policies are in place, labour migration can help countries respond to shifts in labour supply and demand, stimulate innovation and sustainable development, and transfer and update skills,” said Nathan.

However, a lack of international standards regarding concepts, definitions and methodologies for measuring labour migration data still needs to be addressed.

Nathan stressed on the four pillars of decent work, freedom to union, collective bargain, social security and employment.

Sr. Rani Punnasseril, programme manager, CBCI Office for Labour, spoke on the need of pre-departure orientation training to the prospective migrants as lot of unskilled workers are migrating without adequate information.

Government of India has launched the training programme and encourages the states to keep its citizens well informed about the employer and the employment.

CBCI Office for Labour has been equipping all various dioceses with the pre–departure orientation training along with the consultants from ILO.

The action plan drawn out of the training and discussions will be implemented in North Region and Agra Region’s dioceses. It includes campaign on the social security of the workers and survey of the migrant workers.

Migrant workers must be oriented with regard to language, culture, dos and don’ts in the destination country, the emigration process and welfare measures, said Punnasseril.