Mediaboss Marketing

After over three months of hiatus, the government has finally resumed issuance of labour permits to the migrant workers who could not go on foreign employment in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, on Thursday, decided to issue labour permits to the migrant workers who in the wake of the pandemic had been stuck in the country during their job break and those workers who had renewed their work contracts and visas.

According to Bhola Nath Guragain, the spokesperson with the Department of Foreign Employment, labour permits will be issued to only those migrant workers who wish to go back to their jobs.

Distribution of re-entry labour permits have started from the Foreign Employment Office in Tahachal, Kathmandu, and other Labour and Employment Offices in all Provinces from today, Guragain told the Post.

These workers will have to undergo Covid-19 screening and follow the standard health protocol to obtain their labour permits.

The government has still not made any decision on issuing labour permits to the first-time applicants of overseas employment.

In mid-March, when coronavirus cases started multiplying in labour destination countries, the government had stopped labour migration for an indefinite period. The department on March 13 stopped giving labour permits, a move that has affected thousands of aspirant migrant workers.

After the government relaxed the lockdown, the Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre (CCMC) last week decided that Nepali citizens, including the migrant workers who are at home during job break would be allowed to go on foreign employment as per the recommendation of the Ministry of Labour.

However, the CCMC decision to resume labour migration has drawn criticism from several labour migration experts. According to them, allowing Nepali workers to migrate on foreign employment will only put them at risk because most of the labour hosting countries are still reeling under the pandemic.

According to Swarna Kumar Jha, a labour migration researcher, the government decision to allow Nepali migrant workers to go on foreign employment lacks both timeliness and logic.

The government decision to resume labour migration clearly shows that they are not serious about its own decision. On the one hand, we are bringing back workers from several labour destination countries. And on the other, we are hurrying to send the workers to those same countries, said Jha.

The time is not right to start sending workers. Even if the government wanted to send workers, it could have begun with countries like South Korea and Japan where the pandemic is largely under control and the number of Nepali workers working and living is relatively smaller, added Jha, who is also a coordinator with the National Network for Safe Migration.

The government is currently busy bringing home Nepali workers from various labour destination countries after they lost their jobs in the wake of the pandemic.

We had been receiving calls from migrant workers asking us to resume labour migration. Workers on leave and those with good-paying jobs wanted to go back to their jobs, said Guragain. Following their demands, we took the proposal to the Labour Ministry, which made the decision to issue re-entry labour permits.

Jha, however, said that the governments decision to send workers abroad is merely an attempt at diverting the attention of returnee migrant workers and unemployed youths away from its failure to create jobs at home.

Read the original:
Government starts issuing labour permits to migrant workers on job break and with renewed contracts - The Kathmandu Post

For almost 13 years, Mumbai has been a second home to 48-year-old Pramod Yadav and his younger brother who came from their native village in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, to work at construction sites and earn a living in the country's financial capital.

However, due to the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, tens of thousands of migrant workers, like Pramod, were forced to undertake a long and painstaking journey from Mumbai and other metropolitan cities in order to return to their native places.

Tracklive updates oncoronavirus here

Daily labourers like us are hit the hardest by the outbreak, driving us deeper into hunger and poverty, shared Pramod in an agonised voice as he waited in the queue for his turn to receive food and facemasks distributed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

Also Read:Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases

Besides labourers like Pramod, some were young children and women, carrying with them the life they had built for themselves packed into their small bags.It will take us around three days to reach Gonda and a few more days in a quarantine camp until we finally meet our family, said Pramod.As the Covid-19 outbreak battered Mumbai and other parts of the country, many vulnerable sections including daily wage-earners and migrants lost their livelihoods, leaving them with no other option but to return to their hometowns.

COVID-19 Pandemic Tracker: 15 countries with the highest number of coronavirus cases, deaths

Indian Railways and Maharashtra Government arranged special Shramik Express trains which continue to ferry distressed migrants back to their native villages.Hundreds of such special trains were arranged daily from Mumbai and suburban areas, Pune, Nagpur and Nasik. Besides taking these special trains, many helpless migrants also travelled hitching rides on buses, vans, cycles or on foot; often hundreds of miles away braving heat, hunger and the scourge of the virus.

In such testing times, Dawoodi Bohra volunteers joined hands with the BMC to make the long journey of migrants a tad less arduous by serving them food, fruits and water at railway and bus stations.

This effort to serve migrants was undertaken by the Dawoodi Bohra communitys global philanthropic initiative - Project Rise. While fresh meals were cooked at the communitys Faizul Mawaid al Burhaniyah kitchens in Mumbai and Nagpur, the distribution of food packets at the respective stations was taken up by the communitys volunteer corps, Burhani Guards.

CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL COVERAGE ONLY ON DH

We know the situation is really bad for these workers who are both monetarily and emotionally in a very difficult position. This is the least we can do for them to ensure they have something to eat on their way back home, said Yusuf Hakimuddin, spokesperson of Project Rise which has been providing food, water and other essentials during the lockdown period in coordination with the BMC and other local authorities.

Acknowledging the Bohra communitys kind gesture, Assistant Municipal Commissioner of BMC, in a letter to Shahzada Husain Bhaisaheb Burhanuddin stated, Your father His Holiness Dr Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin has always guided your members to serve fellow citizens and this charitable service of your community people in the hour of crisis is highly commendable and appreciated.

See the rest here:
Dawoodi Bohras join other volunteers to serve migrants food, water during their arduous journey back home - Deccan Herald

Text Size:A- A+

Watching Raj Kapoors 1951 classic Awara, I realised that how you think of that word depends entirely on your privilege. When I was in school in the 80s and 90s, awara was used to describe kids who hung out with members of the opposite sex. It was what teachers called kids who bunked class to go to the canteen or, if they felt more daring, exit school to go watch a movie at the theatre. Awaragardi was something to aspire to because all the cool kids were doing it.

It was never, to our naive, privileged minds, about money or social status.

But Raj Kapoors movie was made in the 1950s, when India was struggling to emerge from the shadows of British rule, when the wounds of Partition were still wide open, when independent India was starting to develop its complicated relationship with money, wealth and education. In this context, the word awara was not something indulgent parents and exasperated teachers said to errant students. It meant a vagabond, someone with no sense of home or, therefore, values, a tramp. It was used to tell you your place in the socioeconomic hierarchy and it was never an aspiration.

Watching this movie in the wake of the massive humanitarian crisis that has gripped India since the lockdown was imposed, one realises that Raj Kapoor was the original showman not only for the style and flair with which he made movies, but because that under that showmanship, he showed us what India really was.

Earlier, the words Gharbaar nahin, sansaar nahin, mujhse kisi ko pyaar nahin in the title song brought to mind the ironically cheerful Charlie Chaplin-esque persona that Raj Kapoor introduced in this movie, but watching it today, it feels almost as if he was foretelling what thousands of workers struggling to get home, many not making it, would feel, almost 70 years later.

In the week of Raj Kapoors death anniversary, it feels only right to revisit what is arguably his greatest movie, which feels all the more relevant today.

Also read: With Bobby, Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia set the bar for young love in Bollywood

Awara opens with Raj (played by Raj Kapoor) on trial for attempting to murder Judge Raghunath (Kapoors real-life father, Prithviraj Kapoor). The judge (played by Prithvirajs real-life father, Dewan Basheshwarnath Kapoor), realising that Raj has not hired a lawyer, is about to get one appointed when a lawyer named Rita (Nargis Dutt) enters the courtroom, stating that she will defend Raj. She is not only Rajs childhood friend and now lover, but has been in the care of Judge Raghunath ever since her father, the judges friend, died.

During the interrogation, Judge Raghunath repeatedly invokes one idea that those who are born to criminals will become criminals, while those who are born to shareef log will end up on the right side of the law and the tracks. This concept of nature versus nurture is a running theme of the film, because, as Rita digs deeper into the interrogation, we find out that years ago, the judge, then up for magistrate-ship, had convicted a criminals son, Jagga (K.N. Singh), for rape without any evidence, using this very logic.

Jagga escaped and kidnapped Raghunaths wife, Leela (Leela Chitnis), but upon finding out she was pregnant, let her go, because he realised that casting suspicions about the father of the child was his way of getting revenge. Raghunath, who had once bucked tradition to marry Leela, a widow, against his familys wishes, then found himself unable to shake the thought that the child wasnt his, threw Leela out of the house. That child was Raj.

On her own and living a hand-to-mouth existence, Leela manages to just about send Raj (played by a young Shashi Kapoor, the directors younger brother) to a good school even as he polishes shoes on the roadside to help make ends meet, but he gets thrown out. He falls into the company of none other than Jagga, who grooms him and mentors him into a life of crime. Years later, Raj, now an adept criminal, tries to steal a womans bag. That woman, it turns out, is the one friend he had in school, Rita, whom he has never forgotten.

Rita and Raj fall in love, but her guardian, the judge, who has no idea that Raj is his own son, disapproves of him for being a worthless awara. Raj, meanwhile, keeps trying to quit his life of crime, but finds that it is difficult, for when employers find out about his past, they dont give him a chance. This vicious circle of poverty and crime throws Raj into a spiral of despair and further crime, made worse by his insecurities about not being good enough for Rita.

Also read: Amar Prem tells the story of relationships that have no name but the power to break hearts

In fact, even though the film is about Raj, it is Rita who is, in many ways, its soul. Her girlhood photograph, which Raj has kept all these years, is his reminder and his advisor to be good, it is what, at a crucial moment, stops him from committing a gruesome crime. She was his one ray of hope in his childhood, and she becomes that again when he needs it. But she is far from a manic pixie dream girl, whose sole purpose in the film is to support the leading man. She is a talented lawyer and a strong woman who stands up even to her imposing guardian, Judge Raghunath, who has taken care of her all these years.

Even her romance with Raj isnt something flighty, although it has its moments of fun. Its deep and passionate from the word go, and its not feel-good. Raj takes his insecurities out on her and its what makes their romance uncomfortable to watch but also beautifully portrayed in all its bruised, traumatic, brooding glory. This is what real human relationships are messy, unpleasant, vital, painful. This, then, is the real message of the film that everyone, whether a wealthy judge in his mansion or a tramp on the street, just needs a bit of love.

Also read: BR Chopras Naya Daur is still relevant for an India fighting age-old labour problems

ThePrint is now on Telegram. For the best reports & opinion on politics, governance and more, subscribe to ThePrint on Telegram.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

See the article here:
Raj Kapoors Awara is all the more relevant in the context of Indias migrant crisis - ThePrint

Written by Vivek Deshpande | Published: June 4, 2020 7:55:34 pm Mehta indulges in the positive versus negative reporting debate while arguing in the Supreme Courts suo motu case in the matter.

VULTURES are natural scavengers. For some, however, they are symbolic of opportunistic predation, at least in a manner of speaking. So, are journalists covering the plight of migrant labourers in the times of a terrible human tragedy unfolding before their eyes akin to vultures? Should they as Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta would like them to restrict themselves to helping the migrants in trouble instead of shooting photos and videos, and narrating their plight in reports? The jury is still out on the matter, but Mehtas elucidation of his point using the example of the much-debated Pulitzer-winning news photograph by the late photojournalist Kevin Carter it depicts a vulture waiting in anticipation of a starving Sudanese childs death is factually misplaced, and hence deeply problematic.

Mehta indulges in the positive versus negative reporting debate while arguing in the Supreme Courts suo motu case in the matter. He also tells his legal rival, Kapil Sibal, to not bring politics into the matter. According to him, the government is doing a lot of good work too, which is not being appreciated. This argument has both neutral and subjective dimensions. When journalists were covering the alleged corruption scandals during the erstwhile Congress-led government, should they have balanced it out with positive stories, if any, that their inner calling probably failed to notice, deliberately or otherwise? How would the party, whose government Mehta now represents, have perceived such journalism?

An interesting media experience is worth mentioning in this context. Both the national and international media were focused on farmers suicides in Vidarbha during the previous decade. This attracted huge government focus on the region with several packages being declared and the whole administrative machinery put to work to ameliorate the farmers lot. The obvious angle of reporting after that was whether the suicides continued at the same rate, or if there was a drop in numbers. This papers investigation suggested that the numbers had indeed started coming down from 2007 from 1,449 suicides in 2006, the numbers dropped to 805 in 2013 in the regions six cotton-producing districts. However, this work was scoffed at by the parties in power today, which were in the opposition then. At least two of the prominent opposition leaders then, who hold key ministerial portfolios in state and Centre today, had openly rebuked this paper on public forums in very disparaging terms. The same leaders started preaching farmers to think positively and not commit suicide when they came to power in Maharashtra in 2014 and when the suicide numbers had started shooting up again.

While a falling or increasing suicide count is an important facet of the farmers suicide saga, it doesnt mean that the farmers were also fluctuating in and out of agrarian distress. It only underlined fluctuations in distress levels. That the farmers continued to live a life in distress was an undeniable fact.

A reporters job is to highlight the positive/s, if any, in the aftermath of measures initiated to tackle the problem, not before it. In the migrants case, Mehta wants us to see the arrangement of transport for migrants as a positive story. He invokes the symbolism of the vulture in Carters photo to vilify the journalists highlighting the misery of the migrants. Mehta should know that the real measures to mitigate migrants sufferings will have to be initiated after they reach their homes. Because whats happening now is just the trailer. Suffering will continue even after they complete their reverse migration. The government will need to undertake the salvaging act then. And, it will be a while after that for the impact of those mitigation measures to unfold. Therefore, Mehta can reserve his anguish against journalists for a later time, if and when they fail to report the positives then, if any.

For now, theres scope to say the current pain of the migrant labourers is largely the making of the government that Mehta is defending. Let alone any bare minimum acknowledgement of government failure, Mehtas labelling of the journalists and activists highlighting migrants pain as prophets of doom is like the pot calling the kettle black.

It is fine for Mehta to call for neutrality and positivity in reporting the migrant crisis now thats his job but to attach political motives to those raising the issue or reporting on it is going beyond the scope of his brief.

The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest Opinion News, download Indian Express App.

IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd

Read more from the original source:
Why the vulture analogy for media doesnt fly - The Indian Express

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to allow, at this stage, an intervention application filed by TMC Member of Parliament Mahua Moitra stating that it will be chaotic to allow a respected Member of Parliament like her to submit arguments on the issue. The Supreme Court was hearing the submissions on behalf of the Centre and states on the steps being taken by them to resolve the long-standing migrant crisis that has hit the country during the nation-wide lockdown. Severalintervention applications were filed before the Supreme Court after the court decided to take suo moto cognisance of the case, bringing the issue to light before the top court for the second time.

Read:180 Migrant Workers Return To Jharkhand From Andaman On Chartered Flight

Applications were filed on behalf of several migrant worker associations along with the NHRC and certain individuals including the TMC MP. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta making arguments on behalf of the Centre objected to the intervention applications stating that none of the interveners should be entertained at this stage to minimise the confusion during the hearing. The bench agreed with the Solicitors arguments, while also allowing the counsel for Moitra to put forth their stand. Advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing for Moitra, told the Supreme Court that she had filed an application earlier before the Supreme Court as well, but at that time, her application was dismissed because the Supreme Court had left it up to the government to decide what needs to be done to solve the crisis.

Read:'Kerala Economy Struggling, Cannot Pay For Return Of Migrant Workers': State Govt Tells SC

Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul told Gupta ,Moitra is a respectable member of Parliament and if we allow this, it will become a chaotic situation. We have the assistance of the Union and the states for now.

Justice Kaul went on to say that they dont want this to become a jamboree right now by allowing everyone to argue. The application filed by Moitra, however, was not dismissed at this stage, with the Supreme Court reserving its order for June 9.

Read:Coronavirus Live Updates: SC Suggests '15 Days To Transport All Migrants'; Cases At 226770

Read:Bihar Police ADG Recalls Letter Warning Districts Of 'law & Order Issue' Due To Migrants

Read this article:
Allowing TMC MP Mahua Moitras intervention into the migrant crisis will be chaotic: SC - Republic World - Republic World