Starving migrants keep helplines busy

HYDERABAD: The true magnitude of the migrant labour distress is surfacing a month after the lockdown was imposed. The Labour department’s recently launched helplines, which function at the district and State level, were ringing non-stop as hundreds of complaints on starvation were pouring in.

The District Labour Commissioner of Rangareddy alone received 259 complaints in the last week — most of these were about lack of food and essentials. “There are 259 complaints so far, all of which are sent to the Revenue department to resolve as they pertain to lack of ration supply,” M Pramod Reddy, Deputy Commissioner of Labour, Rangareddy, said.

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In Hyderabad district, 32 such complaints were received. “Since a week of operations, we received 32 complaints; 29 of these are regarding no ration supply and facilities. We are taking these up with the contractor concerned or employer available, or we are sending these to the Revenue department,” Ravinder Reddy, Deputy Commissioner of Labour, Hyderabad, said. Across Telangana, 103 such complaints were came in. These are primarily from those workers not covered under the respective Collectorate’s list of beneficiaries. “In Hyderabad, 35,000 people are identified, but, over and above this we traced 11,000 people whom we are now linking with food security,” said another labour official.

This is the case in almost all districts as labour officials were contacting each and every establishment to refresh the list of beneficiaries.Meanwhile, even though the lockdown began only in the last week of March, many workers did not receive their wages. This was translating into the increasing number of distress calls.

In Hyderabad alone, three complaints came in, which officials were addressing through arbitration and sending notices as warning for timely payment. The Statewide helpline served 17 such notices.