NEW DELHI, May 13 : From setting up a national dashboard to track district-wise movement of migrant workers to promoting digital wage payment systems linked to payroll records to reduce wage theft and improve transparency, a core committee of the NHRC has given a slew of recommendations on protecting their rights.
The National Human Rights Commission held a meeting of its core group on ‘Protecting Migrant Workers’ Rights: Shared Responsibility of Government and the Private Sector,’ at the NHRC premises here, with many participants joining online.
Chairing the meeting, NHRC chairperson, Justice (retd) V Ramasubramanian, said that compared to others, the migrant workers face greater challenges because most belong to the unorganised sector.
Language barriers, mobility and lack of stable shelter prevent them from protecting their rights in an organised manner. He also recalled the strong tradition of trade unions for workers’ rights, the NHRC said in a statement.
Justice Ramasubramanian emphasised the need to shift from a compliance-based approach to a rights-based culture for migrant workers.
He also stressed systemic reforms such as interstate coordination, portable social protection and stronger implementation of labour laws.
The NHRC chief said the immediate focus should be on migrant workers engaged in construction, hotel, business and domestic work. He suggested that linguistic identity-based association members should be taken on board the coordination councils to improve the ecosystem for migrant labourers, it said.
Some of the suggestions that emanated from the discussion included setting up a national migrant workers’ dashboard to track their movement district-wise; and strengthening interstate migration corridor coordination mechanisms, especially between high-outflow and high-inflow states, the rights panel said.
Justice Ramasubramanian referred to laws such as the 1979 legislation recognising migrant workers and the Industrial Disputes Act provisions granting protection after 240 days of continuous work, while “noting loopholes” like employers giving breaks before eligibility periods, it said.
He said while India has strong labour laws, implementation “remains a concern”.
The NHRC chief said the problems being faced by migrant workers are widely known and the Commission expects that multi-stakeholder discussions result in suggesting practical solutions as recommendations to the Union and state governments for implementation.
Other recommendations include the need for a coordination council to address the issue of the migrant labourers; linking and harmonising databases across government systems, not just e-Shram alone, to create an integrated migrant worker information ecosystem for real-time governance; and creating a formal national-level advisory or consultation mechanism for migrant workers themselves, ensuring they are directly represented in policy formulation.
Integrating caste-specific vulnerability analysis into labour policy, including coordination with National Commissions for SC/ST and historically migrant communities; developing coordinated multi-commission policy responses involving human rights, caste and tribal commissions for historically mobile populations; and promoting digital wage payment systems linked to payroll records to reduce wage theft and improve transparency, have also been recommended. *PTI)
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