COVID-19: SC says 'not an expert body' on health, management issues of migrant workers

Supreme Court Tuesday said it was t an "expert" body on dealing with health and manment issues of migrant workers arising from 21-day nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic and would rar ask government to set up helpline for needy.

A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and justices S K Kaul and Deepak Gupta, through video conferencing, was hearing plea filed by two civil rights activists seeking enforcement of fundamental right to life for migrant workers and payment of ws to m as y have been left without work or food following lockdown. bench, which h earlier issued tice to Centre on PIL, took te of response of government that it was monitoring situation and has set up helpline number for helping poor workers.

"We do t plan to supplant wisdom of government with our wisdom. We are t experts in health or manment and will ask government to create a helpline for complaints," bench said while fixing PIL for furr hearing on April 13.

bench also said it cant take a "better policy decision" at this st and moreover, it also does t want to interfere with policy decisions for next ten-fifteen days. At outset, lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing for activists Mander and Anjali Bhardwaj, said that more than 4 lakh migrant workers were living in shelter homes and this me mockery of distancing which is necessary to fight COVID-19 pandemic.

"If y are kept in shelter homes and n even if one person has Coronavirus y all get it. y should be allowed to go back to ir own homes. Families need money for survival because y are dependant on ws," Bhushan said.

He said that more than 40 per cent such workers did t try to migrate and are living in ir own homes in cities and y do t have money to buy food. bench said that it has been told that such workers are being provided with meals in shelter homes and asked as to why y needed money for buying food.

y are t all in shelter homes. y do t just need food in shelter homes and y needed money to send to ir families back home, lawyer said. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Centre said that government was "on top of situation" and it was looking into complaints recieved.

call centre has been set up. Home Ministry and Minister have been monitoring helpline, law officer said. bench, during hearing, said courts cant monitor complaints that foods in ome shelter homes are t edible PIL has sought enforcement of fundamental right to life for migrant workers and payment of ws to m as y have been left without work or food following 21-day nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic. plea said that fundamental right to life under Article 21 of Constitution needs to be enforced for migrant workers who are severely affected by lockdown ordered by government on March 24.

“ order for which prior intimation was given, created a panic across country and led to instantaneous loss of jobs and ws of millions of migrant workers employed in establishments across India or self-employed as street vendors, rickshaw pullers, domestic house helps, petty job workers, etc. This led to large scale exodus of se migrant workers to ir home towns,” plea said.

petition, filed through Bhushan, said that sudden anuncement of lockdown led to migrant workers crowding in large numbers of many thousands at bus terminals, railway stations and inter-state borders to find ir way home, potentially exposing m to virus and escalating risk of its spre.

“Due to lockdown workers cant travel to ir place of work and many of se establishments are small businesses that have been forced to shut down and hence employers will t be able to pay se ws. Besides majority of se migrant workers are self-employed.

" order igres harsh realities that workers have to persistently face in cities that is furr compounded when a lockdown order deprives m of ir job, daily ws and hence means of survival, thus violating ir Article 21 rights,” plea said.

lockdown has precipitated an unprecedented humanitarian crisis especially among class of migrant workers and it is central and state governments that have to take equate measures in accordance with National and State plans drawn out under Disaster Manment Act, 2005, under guidance of visory committees y are mandated to constitute, to deal with this epidemic, it said.

petition sought direction to central and state governments to jointly and severally ensure payments of ws/ minimum ws to all migrant workers within a week, wher employed by or establishments, contractors or self-employed, as y are unable to work and earn ws, during period of lockdown. It also sought direction to m to immediately activate National and State visory Committees of experts in field of disaster manment and public health.

Besides, it sought direction to m for preparing national and state disaster manment plans for dealing with COVID-19 epidemic, taking into account all relevant aspects, mitigation measure, ir possible costs and consequences as required under Disaster Manment Act, 2005.