Governments in general are failing in their responsibility to deal with the problems of workers in the unorganized sector, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren said on Friday.
Soren blamed the central government for the lack of coordination that had pushed action on the commitment his government had drawn from the Border Roads Organization (BRO) to crack down on labor contractors and recruit directly from the state after signing. a memorandum of understanding (MoU).
The Chief Minister was the keynote speaker at The Indian Express Thinc’s Migration Webinar Series in partnership with Omidyar Network India, which focused on internal migration in the country.
In June 2020, the Jharkhand government received a commitment from the BRO to recruit workers directly from the state, register under the Interstate Migrant Workers Act, and sign an MoU. The state had received many complaints from workers about late payments and other problems, Soren said.
“Sarkar mazdooron ke prati zimmedari sahi tarike se nahi nibha pa rahi hai. Lagatar principal kendra sarkar ke pas is vishay par samanway banane ka prayas kar raha tha, lekin mujhe lagta hai ki wo samanway bhi lagbhag toot hi sa gaya hai. Maine Defense Minister se bhi baat kiya tha ki BRO par hamare workers jate hain jis salary par, woh salary nahin diya jata hai balki media milta hai, mediators kaise involve hote hain pata nahin chalta, jabki aap ek zimmedar sanstha hain. (The government is not acting responsibly. I have been constantly trying to establish some coordination, but it seems like it’s all over. I spoke to the Defense Minister as well, saying that when workers go to work for BRO, they are only paid half of the salary they are promised. I can’t understand how mediators get involved in a responsible organization like the BRO), “he said.
The Chief Minister said that he had sent two trains full of workers to work for the BRO during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“BRO se sahmati banayi gayi ki hum jo bhi labor le jayenge hum rajya sarkar ki sahmati se le jayenge, sabhi ko registered kar ke le jayenge, woh saari prakriya dhari ki dhari rah gayi… Aur inhone ek formality ke tahat koi noncommissioned officer ke saath kagaz par ek formality kar di – ek chhoti moti agreement – jiska mujhe lagta hai higher level par effect koi nahi hoga. (An agreement was reached with the BRO, but that process was not followed. They used a junior officer to complete a formality, a minor agreement, which I think will have no weight higher up).
“This is how we are behaving with the workers, and these organizations (BRO) are promoting mediators who go to the interior of the villages and recruit workers… When there is a problem, there are so many bureaucratic obstacles in the government that no progress is made. The future for these workers is dark, ”he said.
Workers play an important role in the Indian economy, said the Chief Minister. He recalled cases of rescued workers from Tamil Nadu and jobs in Jharkhand. He said that he had tried to understand migration in the past year and had had an unpleasant experience. Soren also referred to the devastation caused by the flooding in Uttarakhand last Sunday and said many workers in Jharkhand were affected.
“Main CM ke roop mein ye baat bahut zimmewari ke sath kah raha hoon kyonki vigat samay mein jo migration … ko studio karne ka prayas kiya, apne state mein aur doosre rajyon mein, aapko vishwas nahi hoga ki aisi aisi sansthayen hain, in mazdooron ke saath jude hue hain, aur inke saath jo durvyavahar ho raha hai, aapko sunke ashcharya hoga. Jaise Bharat sarkar ke upakram hain, jaise… border organization hain, wahan pe logon ko le jaya jata hai, NTPC jaisi sansthaon mein le jayata hai… Abhi ek landslide hua Uttarakhand mein wahan par bhi hamare Jharkhand ke mazdoor maare gaye. Par kisi ke pass koi iska hisab-kitab nahin hai ki kahan se labor laya gaya, kaun labor hai, kisi ke paas koi hisab nahi hai (As a CM, I say this very responsibly … you won’t believe how the organizations behave towards the workers. The Indian government’s NTPC employs them too; you would have heard of the Uttarakhand incident; the Jharkhand workers were killed, but nobody any record where they were brought from, etc.) “.
The Chief Minister’s speech was followed by a discussion among an expert panel consisting of Alex Paul Menon, Labor Commissioner and Secretary, Food and Civil Supplies, Chhattisgarh, Prof S Irudaya Rajan of the Center for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Prof Ravi S Srivastava, formerly of JNU, and currently Director of the Center for Employment Studies at the Institute of Human Development, New Delhi, and Rahul Katyal, Managing Director of Capacit’e Infraprojects Ltd). The session was moderated by The Indian Express Deputy Deputy Editor, Udit Misra.
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She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.