'Tailor-made' jobs for migrants returning to Bihar from Kerala

When migrant workers like Mohammad Hakim and Mohammad Kamal lost their job in Kerala and returned to their native place Purnia in Bihar by Shramik Special train early this month, they had not anticipated they will get a job in their home state so soon.

On the eve of Eid, they profusely thank ‘Allah’ to have given them employment in the sector in which they had an expertise. Kamal, Hakim and 71 other migrants from Kerala, after their skill mapping, have been employed by the Bihar Government to prepare three-layered masks.

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“These migrant workers, who returned from Kerala, had knowledge of tailoring. So, after they completed their quarantine period, their skill mapping was done. Adept at tailoring, they have been engaged to prepare three-layer masks,” said District Magistrate of Purnia, Rahul Kumar.

The government officials expect around 1500 masks would be prepared every day, thereby making each of these migrant workers eligible for payment of Rs 600 daily as their remuneration. “They could even earn Rs 800 per day, depending on their speed and efficiency,” another official, supervising their work, averred.

“At a time when people are losing their job amid Covid-19 crisis, we are really fortunate to have got employment, that too a job of our choice in which we have an expertise,” said 20-year-old Kamal, adding that “henceforth, we will never go outside Bihar in search of jobs.”

It’s not only these 73 migrants who have got jobs. Over 2000 migrants in Purnia, who have completed their mandatory quarantine period, have been engaged by the Nitish Kumar regime in digging ponds (under MNREGA) or planting trees/saplings under the Chief Minister’s ambitious environmental scheme ‘Jal Jiwan Hariyali’.