In last 3 month we see the poor condition of migrant labourer. They are the real victim of this lockdown. But the question is arise Covid-19 is a pandemic so lockdown is necessary for the country to save the people so in that condition what we could do for them.On 24th march 2020 our prime minister ordered a nationalwide lockdown. it was ordered that every person must be stay at home.But there are large part of poplulation of india who survive on their daily basis income. They started left their houses and walked towards their native places which was 100 miles far. there were a very touching scenes on the roads. Labourer walked with their small kids with hungry stomach.Some women are pregnant. But they want to go their native place at any cost. Some govt. officer trying to stop them and told them to no to go but they dont want to listen and only want to go their home.They said "Hunger will kill us before corona". This was also true because they earn daily and depend on their daily income. On their ways many sadly incidents were also happened.We also seen some labourer were trying to go their places in trucks. Because they dont have any option. Some are killed in these truck accident.16 migrants are found dead on railway tracks.This pathetic condition of our labourer is the shame of our society. No one will forget these days .
A Big Question- Why This Situation is Arise ?
Mostly migrant labourer are comes from the hindi speaking belt like uttar pardesh, bihar, Madhya pardesh. They not knows their rights. Beside their legal rights as a labourer they first have the fundamental rights which is provided by our constitution to all the citizens of india.According to that every person has a right to live with dignity, right to freedom, right to equality.Goverments of states are also failed to save their rights . There are no programs run by goverment which can aware labourer about their rights. But there are some legal provisions regarding labourer and laws like labour law.
Legal Provisions regarding migrant labourer:-
According to fundamental rights and directive principle of state policy of indian constitution, it is the responsibility of state to grant the citizen both men and women, the right to adequates means right of livlihood, equal pay of equal work,protection against abuse and exploitation of workers, protection of their health, live with dignity and protection of child etc. Beside there are many act like trade union act 1926, Minimum Wages act 1948,Industrial Dispute Act 1949, Industrial Dispute Decision Act 1955 etc. All these types of law are presented in India . But on this situation nothing was work.
In july 2019 the Occupation Safety , Health And Working Condition Code was introduced in Lok Sabha. It replaces 13 labour laws like relating to safety ,health and working conditions. These Laws relating to Factory Act 1948,Mines Act 1952,Docks worker Act 1986,Contract Labour Act 1976, Interstate migrant worker Act1979.According to this code establishments is required to obtain a licence and those wo has not done so , the the migrant labour so engaged through the contractor , shall be deemed to be employee by the principal employer.
So if there are many laws then why they are not implemented properly.If the contractor is licenced then why he did not give dislocation allowance to them because of all of this migrant labourer are helpless and start go to their native area on their feet.
Because of all of this many PIL(Public Interest Litigation) were filed to the Supreme court for to pay attention to the labourer .
On 26 may 2020 the apex court is issued notices to the central, states and Union territories,seeking replies on step taken to "redeem the miseries of migrant labourer"
On 5 june 2020 A bench of justice Ashok Bhushan,SK Kaul and Mr. shah reserved its order on SUO MOTU petition saying its intends to give 15 days to centre and state govt for sending to native places the all migrant workers.
NHRC(national human rights commission) filed a plea through Deputy Registrar Sunil Arora for consideration of Apex court in order to Alleviate the plight of migrant worker to ensure that their human rights are not voilated.
SC allowed NHRC to intervene in the case related to plight and miseries of standard worker due to pandemic induced national wide lockdown.
So at last there are many laws present in indian constitution which are very helpful for migrant labourer but the problems is there implementation. Goverment duty is not only to make a new law but applied these laws more efficiently and strictly. Goverments has to run programs for the migrant labourer so that they can aware of their rights and in future we would not seen this pathetic condition of labourer in any situation. they are the pole of our economy. We can not leave them this way. Because of them our economy run smoothly.
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