Chennai: Ram Prakash, which originated from the Kaimur District of Bihar and worked as a painter at the construction site in Kancheepuram Regency, decided to keep returning during locking in Tamil Nadu.
However, the 41-year-old had to spend every penny from his pocket to survive, with a little or no help.
Prakash doesn’t know about the government’s welfare scheme for guest workers like him.
He is one of the hundreds of guest workers, which fall through the cracks of the government scheme which aims to ensure a safety net for labor, the country’s economic nutrition.
A cross section of guest workers with who interacts says the state and recipient countries protect their rights.
Registration of guest workers is the only way to ensure that each of them is calculated, thus getting the benefits of the government.
Until now, only around 5.2 lakh guest workers have been mapped.
It accounts for less than 15% of labor from other states.
A senior official in the department said it would be a difficult task to map guest workers because they were floating populations.
Officials in the Labor Department recognizes that most guest workers in the unorganized sector are lost from the government database.
They also face challenges in mapping them on the department drive through online portal registration.
This once again proves the failure of the law enforcement agency to implement workers between countries (employment regulations & service provisions) Act 1979 and other employment laws brought to protect the rights of workers and expand social security.
This action mandates registration of guest workers, protects their rights and ensures safe migration, health and safety at work, and the provision of creche at work.
Labor activists and union members argue that employers want their workforce to remain “ghosts” without names and counts.
This will help them to exploit workers and deny them from their rights (workers).
“Chennai and three neighboring districts – Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu – will have at least 15 Lakh guest workers, while the country will have 40 to 50 lakh workers between countries.
But the Ministry of Manpower, so far, only registered 5 lakh workers.
This leaves more Of the 80% of workers forgotten and without safety nets, “Geetha said from an unorganized federation.