Migrant labourer camps left out of awareness campaigns

Tough times: A bystander of an inpatient at the Kozhikode Medical College looking to buy food, passes by petty shops which were closed because of the fall in flow of patients and visitors following Nipah outbreak.

Tough times: A bystander of an inpatient at the Kozhikode Medical College looking to buy food, passes by petty shops which were closed because of the fall in flow of patients and visitors following Nipah outbreak.  

No migrant worker has shown Nipah symptoms, say Health Dept sources

Even as awareness campaigns and cleaning drives are in full swing in the wake of the Nipah outbreak, steps to bring migrant workers under the safety net are yet to gather pace. Labour Department sources say they are yet to get specific instructions from the higher authorities or the Health Department to inspect labour camps and check whether there is any suspicious outbreak of diseases.

The awareness campaigns being organised in regional languages are not addressing the migrant population who continue to work in various parts of the district without using protective gear. In the absence of a health audit, the Health Department too is clueless about whether there are any suspicious fever cases in crowded labour camps.

A senior officer attached to the Labour Department say their staff are worried about undertaking checks in labour camps, given the unsafe circumstances. Besides, the staff are yet to receive protective gear to conduct such checks, he adds.

The officer says special camps for migrant workers to enrol them under the Awaz insurance scheme was stopped due to the Nipah outbreak. It will be resumed only after the Collector’s direction after reviewing the situation on May 31, he says.

The migrant labour camps are usually the centre of the Health Department’s field-level awareness campaigns as most communicable diseases are reported from such settlements. The Health Department sources say this time such a drive was not given priority as no migrant worker has shown symptoms of Nipah virus infection.

District-level meetings held recently to review the health situation under the leadership of Ministers and Health Department authorities too did not discuss including the migrant population in the safety drive.

There were reportedly three migrant labourers who helped in the cleaning of a well at Perambra that was initially suspected to be the source of bats carrying the virus. Though three of a family died, no health check-up was conducted on the labourers. Sources say the workers are yet to be traced.