As many as 11,815 migrants from Jharkhand will be heading to work for the Border Road Organization projects in Himachal, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir after the State Government reached an agreement with the BRO. The highlights includes a ration allowance, medical insurance among other benefits. BRO has to register as an employer under 1979 Inter state Migrant Worksmen Act and do direct recruitment of all workers from Jharkhand.
A week ago, Jharkhand became the first state to airlift its 60 migrant workers from Ladakh’s Batalik sector. Now, in another first, the state’s labour department has prepared an MoU with the Border Road Organisation which comes under the Ministry of Defence. BRO undertakes construction and building of strategic roads and infrastructure along the Country’s Northern border with China, scattered across Arunanchal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
With multiple communication between the BRO and the Principal Secretary to CM, a revised scheduled of rates for all categories of workers - Unskilled ,Semi- skilled and Skilled has been worked out. BRO has agreed to increase wages by around 15- 20%, coming into effect from June 10. Now the BRO will be the direct employer, doing away with contractors.
On May 31, Rajeev Ekka, Principal Secretary to the CM wrote a letter to Lt General Harpal Singh who is the director general of Border Roads asking multiple questions- this included- “why tribal districts of Jharkhand were being chosen for this transportation of workers? What will be the allowances, working hours, accommodation etc?”
Immediate response came from the BRO that traditionally the workers from Dumka and Deoghar districts have been involved in this work. “They are honest, hardworking, tough and well suited to work in the remote and rugged mountains.”
When the first batch of workers returned home, the state government did mapping to get a sense of what the pay structures are. The mapping document with News18 shows that many of them had not been paid money by the contractors for months and adding to their grievances was the monthly salary far below what the BRO communicated to the state government.
Sources close to Hemant Soren told News18 that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had himself requested Soren's intervention last Sunday. Soren is believed to have conveyed the concerns of the workers and the need to streamline the movement of migrants.
BRO had in place a system of Mates who play the role of intermediaries. With the state of Jharkhand now being the go-between its hoping that tribal Workers from Santhal Pargana, who have been at the forefront of building India’s frontiers since the early 1970s get what’s long over due.
Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren told News18, “National security is our priority and at the same time we have prioritized that honour, dignity and rights of our workers are guaranteed while serving the nation.”
The skill mapping exercise of migrants is currently underway in states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. With state such as Jharkhand now institutionalizing the movement of its labour force, its certainly a new chapter in migrants movement in the country, but the irony is that it took a pandemic for the states to realise where it could have helped its most vulnerable.
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