Social and cultural needs of inter-state migrant labourers are very important and adequate space should be given for that to make them feel at home, opined Madurai District Superintendent of Police, V.Balakrishnan.
Addressing an awareness programme on ‘ migrant workers working in tiny and small industries, organised here in the city on Saturday, he said that in most cases it is acute poverty that drives these migrant labourers to go to different states in search of greener pastures, so we have to handle the labourers issue with a human touch.
Most of the labourers who come here are from Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand, if we look at the cultural and linguistic history we could find that people from these states speak a tongue that has links to the Dravidian family of languages, he said.
Mr.Balakrishnan, pointing out the principles of Indian Constitution said that while collecting personal information there should be no room for discrimination and at any point of time the labourers should not feel that they are being profiled or alienated.
Madurai Deputy Chief Inspector of Factories, V.A. Appavu Samraj said that the event was organised to create awareness on the employment of migration workers and arriving at a solution to other related problems.
In his speech, he gave a background on how the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act (1979) came into existence during the 1970s. He said that the Act was explicitly enacted to prevent migrant workers from being exploited and under the Act, labour contractors are required to obtain a licence from the government concerned authorising them to recruit and employ migrant labour from one State to another. Legally, any establishment employing more than five inter-State migrant workmen is required to register under the provisions of the Act.
V.S.Manimaran, president, P.Muruganandam, joint secretary, Madurai District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association were among others who spoke on the occasion. The event was jointly organised by the Labour Department and MADITSSIA. A form to collect the personal information of the migrant labourers was released on the occasion.
