Parliamentary Panel expresses displeasure over 'long delay' of migrant survey

A Parliamentary panel has rapped the Ministry of Labour and Employment for not completing a country-wide survey to ascertain the number of migrant labourers and the impact of Covid-19 on them though the exercise started 18 months ago.

The Rajya Sabha Committee on Government Assurances, headed by AIADMK MP M Thambidurai, expressed its “displeasure over the long delay” in the completion of All India Migrant Workers Survey.

“...even after a lapse of 18 months, (it) is yet to be completed. This shows lack of seriousness about the survey on the part of the Labour Bureau,” the committee said in its latest report tabled in Parliament last week.

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It asked the Ministry to ensure that the data is collected and collated “without any delay”.

The Labour Bureau, under the instructions of the Ministry, had launched the survey on April 1 last year to estimate the number of domestic/internal migrant workers and to collect data on their household characteristics.

The survey was designed following a recommendation from an Expert Group which finalised the schedule sampling design and other technical details.

The panel, which monitors the implementation of assurances given on the floor of Parliament, said it found the survey as assured in Rajya Sabha was pending for completion and that the Ministry had not given any details.

The Ministry told the panel that the Labour Bureau has been entrusted with the job to generate “basic quantitative” information on migrant workers and the impact of Covid-19 on their work.

It said the survey also aimed to “throw light” on the socio-economic conditions of migrant workers, their education level, vocational training, gender, social group, accommodation, consumption expenditure, income, financial inclusion and change in income after migration.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, according to figures provided by states to the Centre, over one crore migrant workers had returned to their home states.