ID cards likely for migrant labourers

KOCHI: As there is no let-up in the number of crimes involving migrant labourers, the Labour  Department is planning to maintain a record of all migrant labourers flocking to state. Talks are also progressing to issue photo identity cards to the labourers.The department will have counters at railway stations where all the labourers arriving will have to register their name and identity.  “Once the labourers get registered at these counters, they will be given an identity card. The employers can hire only those labourers who have the card,” a Labour Department official said.“We prefer railway stations as majority of the labourers from West Bengal, Assam, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh arrive by train. In the initial phase, we propose to start counters in Aluva, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Kozhikode, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram stations,” Labour Department officials said, and added that discussions were on with the Railways in this regard. The registration would be computerised so that the labourers could be identified when they move to other parts of the state.According to sources, over 70,000 migrant workers come to the state every year seeking jobs. Around 35,000 migrant labourers have been registered with the Labour Welfare programme, they said.  “One of the major problems in getting them registered is that most of the labourers work at construction sites and keep changing the place every week. Many of them are also manual labourers who work in houses and these people remain unaccounted. We need to evolve more effective measures to register them,” Ernakulam Labour Officer E V Narayanan Nampoothiry said.