Ensuring Safety Of Our Guest Workers

The frequent workplace hazards faced by migrant workers in Kerala raise doubts about the state’s worker-friendly image. Despite Kerala’s notable history of rightsbased public actions, accidents and fatalities of workers show how vulnerable migrant workers often pay the price for safety failures. A few weeks ago, Naseer Hussain (22), from West Bengal died after falling into a burning waste pit at a plywood factory in Ernakulam.
The significant advancements in the public distribution system, education, and even general healthcare in Kerala need to find a parallel in safety aspects as well. What could be the internal domestic factors that are leading to such postponement and violation of essential rights of migrant workers here?
Hazardous situations can be avoided by taking a comprehensive approach encompassing careful inspection of security mechanisms, effective coordination among diverse governmental agencies, and fostering a better work culture.
Based on our field experiences in Kerala, we have observed evidence-based scenarios that highlight the need for stakeholder coordination to ensure inclusive migration governance of interstate workers. These workers, who play a vital role in various industries, deserve respect and fair treatment in line with global migration governance mechanisms. If a dedicated committee for migrant workers is established in all 941 local self-governing bodies in Kerala it will help in providing essential social security, healthcare, and safety initiatives at the grassroots level. However, according to an MG University-SERB study, the state government has not yet issued specific orders to empower local selfgoverning bodies in ensuring comprehensive social health and safety systems for migrant workers. This can be seen as an insufficient approach towards Kerala’s 34 lakh (Kerala Planning Board, 2021) interstate migrant workers. It can be considered a misstep on the part of the government to rely on the Inter-StateMigrant Labour Act, of 1979--a law that has remained stagnant for the past four decades without incorporating necessary reforms.
The department of labour and skills issued an order in 2016 for the Awaz scheme, benefiting the interstate workers in Kerala. In the past seven years, 5,16,320 migrant workers have been registered under the scheme. The labour commissionerate uses these figures as the total count of migrant workers in Kerala. But there are inconsistencies and limitations as only registered contractors are relied upon, which doesn’t accurately represent the actual migrant worker population. This emphasizes the importance of empowering local self-government bodies to address this issue effectively. The total number of migrant workers in the state has been obtained by taking into account the number of workers registered with the labour commissioner’s office through registered contractors in Kerala, as well as the registered workers in the Awaz scheme.
In 2010, the state government has given a grant of Rs 10 crore to the labour department for the migrant workers’ welfare scheme but till now, only Rs 33. 70 lakh has been spent. Had the local self-government bodies received this amount, it could have been used for migrant workers’ welfare, job security, and inspections. Kerala’s local self-government bodies received praise for their efforts in ensuring social and health security for migrant workers during Covid-19, described as the ‘Kerala Model. ’ As much as Rs 4. 3 crore was allocated from the construction workers' welfare board, enabling effective welfare activities through decentralization.
Between 2016 and 2022, the labour and health departments organized 1,952 medical camps, spending Rs 2. 5 crore. zHowever, the benefits of such spending, aimed at improving migrant workers' health and safety, are not reaching the migrant workers adequately. To ensure comprehensive health and social security support for all migrant workers, it is important to issue government ordersthat expand the responsibilities of local self-governing bodies, empowering them to effectively address the needs of migrant workers at the grassroots level.
Here are some suggestions: Kerala lacks an interstate migrant worker registration system. The state relies on registration numbers provided by labour contractors at the labour commissioner’s office to determine the number of migrant workers. Contractor registration should be handled by local governments through the labour department.
To ensure job protection, prevent workplace discrimination, and combat exploitation among migrant workers. The labour department and local self-government organizations must jointly visit workplaces, address deficiencies, and enhance job security measures. The occupational safety, health, and working conditions labour code requires that workplace accommodations have to be clean and sanitary. Only the local self-governing bodies can conduct such inspections on a regular basis.
Local self-government bodies must collaborate with police stations to counter increasing hostility towards migrant workers. Awareness classes can be organized to promote a positive attitude towards migrant workers, as incidents like the lynching of Rajesh Manji from Bihar are degrading and contradict the notion of treating migrant workers as ‘guests. ’ It should be the responsibility of local self-government bodies to foster harmony between natives and interstate migrant workers.
The labour department must establish independent panchayat-based registration processes for migrant workers through the existing web portal.
Activities for inter-state migrant workers in educational institutions under local self-government bodies should also be encouraged. This will definitely improve the existing online and offline learning modes that are promoted in different parts of Kerala where thousands of interstate migrants and their children are enrolled in formal and informal systems of learning.
The authors work with the Centre for Migration Policy and Inclusive Governance at Mahatma Gandhi University