Lockdown: Tamil Nadu begins distribution of second round of relief materials to guest workers

CHENNAI: The department of labour and employment has begun distribution of dry rations to 5.10 lakh guest workers stuck in the state without job and money in the wake of Covid-19 and lockdown.
The state government has announced a relief kit containing 15 kg of rice, one kg of dal and one kg cooking oil to the migrant labourers as part of the welfare measures. Following this, the labourer department launched a survey and collected the data on guest workers from different sectors to distribute the relief kit.
With the help of district administration, the assistant commissioners of labour and officials attached to the building and other construction wing of director of industries safety and health distributed the relief materials to the registered guest workers. “We commenced distribution of the second round of relief materials to 5.10 lakh labourers a couple of days ago. So far, we distributed to close to 80% of the labourers,” additional chief secretary of labour and employment Mohammed Nasimuddin told TOI on Thursday.
Collectors have been instructed to collect the data of the guest workers entering the respective district and upload it along with Aadhaar number on a newly developed portal.
“Collectors are given username and password to upload the data of the guest workers. If the labourers are moving out of a district, the collector should remove their information from the portal. It will help us maintain real-time data and play a crucial role in policy decisions,” said the officer.
The portal would shed light on patterns of migration, re-migration, state and sector-wise migrations. “All these years, the department of labourer and employment had no such vital information. The pandemic taught us a valuable lesson and where we faulted without having information on the workforce coming into the state from other parts of the country,” said another official.