Over 1 crore migrant workers walked home during March-June amid Lockdown, says Centre

New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday said that more than one crore migrant labourers returned to their home states on foot during March-June 2020. This number includes who walked back following the imposition of the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

V K Singh, the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, informed this to the Lok Sabha in a written reply. "COVID-19 has resulted in the migration of a large number of workers from destination states to the home-states," the Minister wrote.

He said that data compiled by Ministry of Labour and Employment reveals that more than 1.06 crore migrant workers, including those who travelled on foot during the lockdown, returned to their home states.

He further went on to inform Parliament that as per provisional information, as many as 81,385 accidents occurred on the roads (including national highways) during the period March-June 2020 with 29,415 fatalities.

The ministry, however, does not maintain separate data in respect of migrant workers who have died in road accidents during the lockdown, the Minister added.

The MHA had issued regular advisories to state/union territories to take all necessary measures to provide shelters, food, water, health facilities and also proper counselling to migrant workers, he added.

The Minister further went on to inform that the ministry assisted the movement of migrant labourers walking on foot on the various national highways all across the country by providing them with food, drinking water, basic medicines and footwear.

They were also provided with the resting places to take rest and assistance in terms of the arrangement of transport with the help of local administration to take them to the places nearest to their destinations, he said.

The Minister also informed that the Union Home Ministry vide orders dated 29 April 2020, and 1 May 2020, allowed movement of migrant workers to their native places by buses and Shramik special trains.

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