More than a quarter of Indians currently are below poverty line. If India is on track with MDG for reduction of extreme poverty by half in the future then we can expect to have 20% Indians below poverty line when the poverty is halved. Our measures to link health insurance, Public Distribution System, Janani Suraksha Yojana and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to the Below Poverty Line card can raise the rate of reduction of poverty only if we can manage to get every Indian who is not able to earn Rs.32 in a day to own a BPL card. So, improving the system of providing BPL cards and removing corruption from the process can accelerate the rate of reduction faster than what the world bank anticipates.
Fragmentation of communities due to the rural push and the urban pull leaves migrant laborers extremely vulnerable to exploitation. We need to ensure that the services they were able to access in their native place should be available to them in the new workplace too. Therefore, identity in the form of voter card alone beats the whole purpose of continuity of access to services. The new identification system by a smart card will address the problem meaningfully only if the availability of BPL card, RSBY card and the ration card is made easy.
In order to get information and help with paperwork, there should be one office that should give them information and help them finish their paperwork without having to relinquish their wage for the day. Transportation is another facility that should be available for them to readily feel inclined to reach such an office and fulfill their paperwork. It would help if the employee is given official leave to get all this done without losing his wage. It should be the employers responsibility to inform them about what papers have to be produced and how and where the office is located.
Accommodations given on rent should have a licensing system, so that sub-human standards of living may not be tolerated. Most of the migrant labourers in Ludhiana live in single rooms with a toilet shared with 10 other people living in other single rooms. The cleanliness and hygiene of the place and the toilet is deplorable. Such accommodations as well as squatter huts should be banned from being rented. There should be a separate complex of government built accommodations which should be given with subsidized rent. After all , these are the people who are taking forward the city of Ludhiana in its economic growth, they must not be treated as ghosts who have no value.
Fragmentation of communities due to the rural push and the urban pull leaves migrant laborers extremely vulnerable to exploitation. We need to ensure that the services they were able to access in their native place should be available to them in the new workplace too. Therefore, identity in the form of voter card alone beats the whole purpose of continuity of access to services. The new identification system by a smart card will address the problem meaningfully only if the availability of BPL card, RSBY card and the ration card is made easy.
In order to get information and help with paperwork, there should be one office that should give them information and help them finish their paperwork without having to relinquish their wage for the day. Transportation is another facility that should be available for them to readily feel inclined to reach such an office and fulfill their paperwork. It would help if the employee is given official leave to get all this done without losing his wage. It should be the employers responsibility to inform them about what papers have to be produced and how and where the office is located.
Accommodations given on rent should have a licensing system, so that sub-human standards of living may not be tolerated. Most of the migrant labourers in Ludhiana live in single rooms with a toilet shared with 10 other people living in other single rooms. The cleanliness and hygiene of the place and the toilet is deplorable. Such accommodations as well as squatter huts should be banned from being rented. There should be a separate complex of government built accommodations which should be given with subsidized rent. After all , these are the people who are taking forward the city of Ludhiana in its economic growth, they must not be treated as ghosts who have no value.
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