CM Yogi promises safety of UP migrant labourers in Gulf countries

UP accounts for largest chunk of blue collar migrants to Gulf

Taking cognisance of the Indian migrant labourers sometimes facing trouble in the Gulf countries, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has assured his government was concerned about the safety of its citizens and that all cooperation would be extended whenever needed.

The CM has already directed the labour department to promptly provide relief to such people, who migrate from the state to the Gulf for earning livelihood, but are distressed.

Between 2014 and 2018, nearly 28,500 Indian migrant labour had died in 6 top Gulf destinations of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as per the data compiled by the Indian embassy in these countries. This was revealed in a written reply by minister of state for external affairs Gen (ret) V K Singh in Lok Sabha a few months back.

According to the ECR (emigration clearance required) passport information from the ministry of external affairs, UP had accounted for the maximum blue collar migrant workers in the Gulf at 86,273 in 2018, followed by Bihar 59,181. The erstwhile top ranked state of Kerala witnessed 90% drop in migrant labour to the Gulf from 1,63,737 in 2008 to 2018 at 14,496.

However, the overall number of Indian unskilled workers migrating to the West Asian countries has consistently fallen over the last 10 years from about 7,62,500 in 2008 to 3,22,000 in 2018.

Meanwhile, Adityanath has also underlined the need to rehabilitate the state child labour by devising ‘practical solutions’ to the lacunae, so that arrangements for their lodging and fooding was created in the state.

He said adequate education and skills development facilities should be provided to such child labour to enable them becoming self dependent in due course. Adityanath, who was reviewing the progress of the state labour department here recently, especially after the long hiatus forced by the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, ordered for establishing schools for the children of registered labour across all the 18 divisions of the state.

Meanwhile, the state government had already liberalised various labour laws and rules for the benefit of small industries, wherein clearances and spot inspection procedures had been made faster and transparent.

Last year, a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) delegation had met Adityanath seeking labour reforms in the state for faster industrial development and boosting ‘ease of doing business’ index. Even as, UP has miles to cover in terms of labour reforms and liberalising related laws, the government has so far amended nearly a dozen labour laws for creating a more conducive manufacturing landscape.

However, there are still certain areas, which have not been addressed, such as the provision of overtime to workers. The current laws restrict workers to work overtime beyond a certain limit even if they are willing to earn additional income.