Observing that migrant workers would not have been leaving the State en masse if their employers had adopted the right approach, the High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday directed the State government to convene a meeting of employers, workers’ unions, and NGOs to explore the possibility of generating money to fund travel of labourers who cannot afford to pay for their travel.

The court also directed the Centre and State governments to look into the issue of paying travel fair for those workers who cannot afford it as they are under distress due to lockdown.

A special Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice B.V. Nagarathna issued the directions during a videoconference hearing of PIL petitions on issues that have arisen due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Prima facie, considering present plight of migrant workers, the governments cannot deprive their right to go to their home States only because some of them have no money to pay for their travel, the Bench observed.

‘Where were captains?’

“Where were the captains of our industries? Now [when migrant workers are leaving] we know what is the importance of migrant workers for our economy. They come all the way to earn their livelihood leaving behind the family’s elders and children at their villages....”, the Bench observed orally.

Pointing out that lack of information on travel facility is one of the reasons why migrant workers are venturing into walking to reach their home States, the Bench directed the State government to specifically inform every registered migrant worker that they can certainly go to their State and inform them about the likely travel schedule.

The migrant workers are insecure as they feel that they will not be allowed to go back to their home States, the Bench said while asking the government to take assistance of trade unions and NGOs to reach the migrant workers with proper information.

Wages

As it was pointed out to the Bench that some of the employers of migrants workers have not paid wages, the Bench said that the State government will have to examine the grievances such migrant workers.

Meanwhile, the Bench directed the government to inform what arrangements are being made to bring back migrant workers of Karnataka from other States.