Dipak Brahma, a resident of Dhantola Mandaria, a forest village in Kokrajhar district, had recently returned from Gujarat, where he worked as a labourer. He was jobless and finding it hard to support his family, according to an official of an NGO working against human trafficking.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention on Wednesday in the alleged "whimsical" functioning of the railways in sending Shramik Special trains to West Bengal and urged the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre not to pursue politics when the state is battling a dual crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic and trail of destruction left behind by Cyclone Amphan.
A 48-page report by Amnesty, Reality Check 2021, said that practices such as withholding salaries and charging workers to change jobs was still rife, despite labour reforms in 2014, as the country prepares to host the soccer tournament next year.
The opposition has been critical of the Centre's handling of the situation, accusing it of not doing enough to ease the hardships of the migrant workers, many of whom have lost their jobs during the lockdown which started on March 25.
Rampukar Pandit, whose mournful face became emblematic of the tragedy faced by poor migrants currently, is currently in hospital, but all he wishes is to return home.
Asked during a press briefing if special trains and private vehicles will also be allowed to transport these people as demanded by some states and others, Joint Secretary in the Union home ministry Punya Salila Srivastava said the orders issued at present were for 'using buses and for group of persons'.
No one has any objection to offering of namaz on the occasion of Bakrid outside the temple town in reverence to it, he said.
Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan on Monday demanded a thorough probe regarding the alleged attack on Bihar migrant workers and bring the culprits to book, and ensure a hospitable atmosphere for the workforce in Tamil Nadu.
The Philippines' foreign ministry confirmed in a statement that one of its nationals had died while working at a resort south of the capital Doha. It said its embassy was "working with legal authorities to ascertain more details of his passing".
'Yogiji is saying he is doing good work, but when you go on the ground you will see the reality.'
The implementation of four labour codes in one go from April 1 next year will usher in a new wave of reforms in industrial relations and also help in attracting more investments but employment generation will remain a key challenge in 2021. This year has also been a challenging year for the work force as well as for employers due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government imposed a nationwide lockdown from March 25, which had an adverse impact on economic activities and resulted in exodus of migrant workers from large cities to their homes in the hinterland. Many migrant labourers lost their jobs and it took months for them to return back to their work places from their native places.
Many of the tragedies occurred in the dark, which is when it is cooler to walk, and many people were caught in their sleep. The combination of no traffic and speeding vehicles has led to havoc, endangering the lives of those who found themselves without work or money in the coronavirus-induced lockdown and were frantic to get home, any which way.
'Why has this turned out to be one of the greatest humanitarian crisis that has caught the Centre and the states in a bind with no answers to this unexpected tsunami?' asks Brigadier Narender Kumar (retd).
Ten central trade unions on Friday gave a call for a nationwide strike on May 22 to protest against the suspension of labour laws by some states during the lockdown period, and also decided to take the matter to International Labour Organization (ILO). "The joint platform of Central Trade Unions (CTUs) in their meeting held on May 14 , 2020 took note of the critical situation for the working people in the country during the lockdown period and decided to enhance united actions to meet the challenge," a joint statement by 10 CTUs said.
'I like it when my daughter talks in English fluently. She is smarter in maths too than her village friends'
Two German broadcasters have reportedly alleged that they were detained and imprisoned by Qatari Police while they tried to investigate the plight of migrant labourers working in the preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Kerala has had 202 fatalities in 2024 so far. In July alone, there were 202,122 episodes of fever, 2,250 cases of dengue, 1,850 cases of mumps and several other illnesses. 10,000 cases of dengue have been reported from Karnataka. 1,000 swine flu cases have been documented in Rajasthan.
Forced to stay indoors for the last few days in view of the prevailing situation and the curfew, the workers and their families, including children, said they have been surviving on crumbs.
He had uploaded a video on social media in which he demanded that the Maharashtra government make travel arrangements for migrants, who are stranded due to the coronavirus-enforced lockdown and want to go back to their native places.
Three Jaish-e-Mohammed militants were killed in the Drach area of Shopian, while a Lashkar-e-Tayiba militant was killed in the Moolu area of the south Kashmir district, the police said.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, replying to queries from journalists in Patna, said the decision to send the team was taken after deliberations that took place over a couple of days.
'For them life is very difficult since there has been no universalisation of PDS.' 'And let's understand that there are people who need ration instead of cooked meals.'
Unlike the other Bharatiya Janata Party-led governments, Assam has not proposed doing away with most labour laws for a certain number of years. Instead it has proposed introducing fixed-term employment to help both workers and industries, and seeks to take more firms out of the ambit of laws governing factories and contract workers.
During the first wave, when people were following lockdown guidelines suggesting that they stay where they are, the Congress was standing at Mumbai station and scaring innocent people, he said.
'A proposal to do away with labour laws is not feasible.' 'That's why we wanted to have a dialogue with the states.'
'COVID-19 is just an excuse to pass anti-labour laws.'
Clashes also broke out at several places in Kashmir on Tuesday, leaving several persons injured.
Rs 2,000 crore will be earmarked for the purchase of ventilators and Rs 1,000 crore for care of migrant labourers
How have aspirations, ambitions and hopes broken down for these young men from the most advanced parts of India? asks Mihir S Sharma.
Rampukar's wife Bimal Devi had walked about 3-4 km towards the hospital on Monday when their young distant nephew, on his way to buy ration on a bicycle, saw her and instead of going to a shop offered her a ride to the hospital, Rampukar said.
The corona-fuelled lockdown having shattered their dreams, they are now walking, cycling and hitchhiking hundreds of miles under an unforgiving sun blazing down at over 40 degrees to reach their homes in an impoverished Bihar, where an uncertain future awaits them.
The portal, which has been tentatively named by the labour and employment ministry as the National Portal for COVID-19 Affected Unorganised Migrant Workers, will gather the details of all the unorganised sector workers who are stranded in relief camps, residential or industrial clusters.
With a surge in coronavirus cases in Delhi and its neighbouring cities, migrant workers and daily wagers fear another round of lockdown could push them into a severe financial crisis from which they might never recover.
Dominic Xavier is puzzled by the government revelation that it has no idea how many migrants died during the long and dangerous march home.
Noting there have been instances of "excess" by police and paramilitary personnel against the migrant workers, the court also asked authorities to consider "withdrawal" of criminal cases against some of them for violating social distancing norms.
Taking selfies from the stands and sitting on the grassy pitch, thousands of migrant workers gathered in a Doha stadium to watch the opening match of the first World Cup in the Middle East.
In a video message, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the party is taking back the 1,000 buses it had arranged if the Uttar Pradesh government didn't want to use them to help stranded migrant workers return home. Vadra said the buses will remain at the UP border till 4 pm, when it would be 24 hours since they were brought there.
Fearing another lockdown in the wake of a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases in Gujarat, migrant workers and their families have started leaving Surat and Ahmedabad, two of the state's most severely affected cities.
If the government is able to deliver the promised projects, the large number of youth will be taken off the streets and that is not acceptable to the Pakistan army nor the terrorists hiding in Pakistan, notes Brigadier Narender Kumar (retd).
For the first time in their lives, 186 Pakistani Hindu refugees in Delhi cast their votes in the Delhi Assembly polls, marking a significant moment in their journey towards citizenship. Having received Indian citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, they expressed hope for a better future with permanent homes and stable livelihoods. The refugees, who have lived in makeshift shelters and struggled with daily wage work for decades, felt a sense of belonging and empowerment after exercising their voting right.
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