21 Day-Lockdown: Kerala Calls Migrant Labourers 'Guests,' Something Other States Can Follow

When it comes to aiding and providing facilities to migrant workers, Kerala has been at the top of the game. From efforts to increase education among migrant workers through courses in Malayalam called Changathi, to current steps taken to help those affected by the coronavirus lockdown.

PTI

At his daily media briefing, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced a slew of helpful measures for the stranded migrant workers, toiling doctors and the general public during the lockdown. He also chose to refer to migrant labourers as ¡°Atithi thozhilalikal" or guest labourers.

According to a News 18 report, the term was coined first by the state's Finance Minister Thomas Issac during his Budget speech in February 2018. As announced by CM Vijayan, migrant workers, a large number of whom are from Bengal and Odisha, ¡°will be moved to specially created camps where they will be given proper medical care and food for free¡±.

Vijayan said: ¡°Migrant workers should not face any problems since they don¡¯t have work now. That¡¯s why we are taking these measures.¡±

Twitter

According to a Telegraph report, migrant workers in Kerala work in the unorganised sector and are usually hired by contractors. With the state under lockdown, they will have no work.

To ensure that the 21-day nationwide lockdown does not leave anyone starving in Kerala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also set up community kitchens being run by Kudumbashree in association with local self-government institutions (LSGIs).

No one will starve during this lockdown #COVID19

Kerala has taken extensive measures to ensure that no one will starve during lockdown. Will be implemented through Local Self Governments, ward-level committees & volunteers

? Will deliver cooked meals
? Will work by phone

¡ª Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) March 25, 2020

The Hindu report states that community kitchens that have started functioning are 11 in Thrissur and 12 in Malappuram, four in Wayanad, three in Alappuzha, and five in Palakkad.

"No one will starve during this lockdown...Kerala has taken extensive measures to ensure that no one will starve during lockdown. Will be implemented through Local Self Governments, ward-level committees & volunteers," Vijayan said in a tweet.

Thousands of migrant workers across the country are stranded or have set out walking on foot to reach home in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Twitter

Even before the nationwide lockdown was announced, workers had thronged bus and railway stations to find a place in jam-packed buses or trains before they got cancelled. Many are now making the journey on foot.

The labour ministry has directed central ministries and states concerned to ensure that employers don¡¯t fire their employees, particularly contractual or casual workers, or reduce their wages amid the Covid-19 outbreak as it would deepen the crisis.

Kerala government has announced a Rs 20,000-crore economic package to mitigate the state through the crisis. The financial package is bigger than the relief package announced during history's worst floods in 2018.

The package is also bigger than the central government economic package of Rs 15,000 crores. Rs 2,000 crore will be distributed as a village employment assurance programme for April and May.