Covid-19 crisis: Construction workers to soon get migration certificates

The central government has proposed issuing migration certificates to construction workers so that they continue to receive benefits of various welfare schemes even after they migrate to another state for work.

This comes after the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted gaps in government database, which, along with other issues, was the reason many construction workers didn’t get adequate welfare benefits.

The Centre has set an ambitious target for the states to double the number of registered construction workers in the country within the next three months for receiving welfare benefits, after noting that the workforce had to live in “pathetic conditions” during the pandemic.

“At present there is no dynamic all-India portal and every state has its individual database which may or may not be able to transfer his or her data from other database,” according to the ‘mission-mode project for building and other construction workers advisory guidelines’ framed by the Union labour and employment ministry. The Centre has sent the guidelines to the states earlier this month.

Under the proposed system, workers will be registered online through their mobile number. After this, a ‘migration certificate’ will automatically be issued to all such workers instantly. Once the worker migrates to some other state, the data will be uploaded on a national portal and a new registration number will be given by the state where the worker is going to work. 

Further, the Centre has told the states to frame a scheme for providing subsistence allowance to all construction workers in times of pandemic and natural calamities.

The fact that only 18 million out of the 50 million construction workers in India could get financial assistance through direct benefit transfer during the ongoing pandemic prompted the Centre to devise a cohesive strategy to expand the coverage within the next three months.

“It (the exclusion of construction workers) was mainly due to non-availability of Aadhaar and bank details of individual workers. A handful of states could not disburse a single rupee due to absence of any such records of bank details and non-digitisation of data,” the document read.

The government has set a five-fold objective for the mission-mode project to cover all construction workers, along with utilising the welfare funds in an effective manner. This includes a social security umbrella, which would have subsistence allowance, and creating a database.

“It is suggested that they may be provided with the subsistence allowance during such crisis, periods of unemployment, loss of work owing to natural calamities. A scheme, if not already in place, may be approved and operationalised by the (welfare) boards,” the guidelines said.

The project envisages registration of construction workers through special drives, including door-to-door campaigns, and self-registration through an online portal. The Centre has advised states to not ask for any documents from the workers, other than their Aadhaar and bank account details and to ensure the verification process is taken up remotely, instead of asking workers to report to government offices physically.

Of the 50 million construction workers, 34.8 million were registered to receive benefits under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Act of 1996. However, the registration of only about 25.7 million workers was up-to-date as the registration could not be renewed on time.

The government has now mooted that the process of renewal be moved online or through “hassle-free telephonic access”.

Under the BoCW Act, states levy cess on construction work (1 per cent of the construction cost of building or project) which is used to pass on the benefits of welfare schemes to the workers. In all, states had collected Rs 61,049 crore till May 2020, of which over 60 per cent — Rs 38,000 crore — is still unutilised.

“The problems of the migrant construction workers during the Covid-19 pandemic brought to the fore the attention of all concerned authorities, especially about the pathetic conditions in which the construction workers have lived and compelled to come on to the streets as the required assistance were not forthcoming timely,” the guidelines read.

It added that the lacunae and the shortcomings in the delivery mechanism and lapses on the part of the agencies were identified as the chief reasons “for partial failure of delivery system”.