After facing lashes from the opposition for putting out statements that there is ‘no data’ on migrant deaths in the coronavirus lockdown, the government today sought to clarify that there was “no mechanism” to collect such data in districts.
Officials said birth and death-related data is maintained at the municipal level according to parameters developed over several decades.
The sources said,
“No mechanism exists at the municipal level to collect data on the death of migrant workers in a given district. It is immature to raise questions on the stand taken by the Labour Ministry on this issue.”
The labor minister Santosh Gangwar has received an immense amount of hate , trollful comments, and a huge backlash on his response to a question on migrant deaths and whether families had been compensated.
“No such data is maintained. Question does not arise in view of the above,” the Minister told the Lok Sabha in a written reply, provoking anger and opposition criticism of a “callous” government.
Adding up to this, the Congress Party’s Leader Mr. Rahul Gandhi tweeted,
“The Modi government does not know how many migrant laborers died and how many jobs were lost during the lockdown. If you haven’t counted, have the deaths not taken place? It is sad that there has been no impact on the government. The world has seen their deaths. There is a Modi government which has no information”.
The government yesterday said in another reply that the massive migrant exodus in the lockdown was triggered by “fake news” spreading around about the duration of the shutdown.
The Labour Ministry put out a note after all this that took place, clarifying on welfare measures, including for the migrant workers, during this Covid-19 crisis.
The note said by listing those steps that –
The Government has taken “unprecedented measures” for labor welfare and employment generation across India during the Covid-19 pandemic.
To another question that was raised on the migrant data in parliament, the government said “according to the economic survey of 2016-17, the size of the migrant workforce can be estimated to be over 100 million in 2016 in absolute terms.”
Whereas out of these, approximately around 1 crore people returned to their home states during the lockdown, said the ministry.
