Hyderabad: Centre plans slew of initiatives for migrant workers welfare says G Kishan Reddy

Hyderabad: Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, G Kishan Reddy said that the Centre is planning to launch a series of initiatives for the welfare of the migrant workers like scholarships, insurance, health coverage under Ayushman Bharat Scheme, automatic admission of schools and setting up Anganwadi centres to the children of migrant workers.

Addressing media through video conferencing on Monday, he said the issue of the migrant crisis being faced currently is a new experience being faced by the centre as well as the states in handling it.

"The lockdown has made the migrant workers to psychologically decide to go their homes and be with their kin and kith. It is an emotional attachment to return to their homes. They cannot be restrained" he said.

Against this backdrop, the Centre and States have been working together to facilitate them to go to their homes. However, there are several issues involved in the current crisis.

Though the origin states make arrangements the receiving state of the migrants would not be in a position to provide necessary logistics, quarantine facilities etc.

For example, migrant workers in nearly 500 Shramik special trains reached Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, migrant workers in about 400 trains reached Bihar.

The destination states are facing a tough time in arranging the logistics to send those landed to their respective destinations. Also, several of the migrant workers have been heading to their homes from the cities, urban areas where the COVID cases have been reported.

So, the migrant workers have to be sent to quarantine. "It would be a tough task to provide such facilities to lakhs of people," he pointed out.

However, the new experiences learned from the current crisis have been addressed and the centre will be taking steps to address a host of issues associated with the migrant workers.

As part of this, it is proposed to provide scholarships to the children of the migrant workers, also, an automatic admission in the schools where they are working.

Also, it was proposed setup Anganwadi centres exclusively for the migrant workers.

Besides, they will also be provided with insurance and extended health coverage under Ayushman Bharat scheme rolled out by the Centre, he added.