‘1 crore migrants went home in lockdown’

NEW DELHI: The government on Monday said over 1 crore migrant workers returned to their home states during the coronavirus-induced lockdown, but that it has no data of migrants who died or were injured while on the move during the period.


This was stated in a reply by

labour

and

employment minister Santosh Gangwar

to a string of questions by members. Though MPs could not seek oral response because Question Hour has been suspended during the monsoon session, the government responded to over 20 questions relating to unemployment, state of migrants and the efforts made to boost employment for those rendered jobless during the Covid-19 crisis.

BJD’s

Bhartruhari Mahtab

had sought to know whether the government collated any data on the number of migrants who died or were injured during the lockdown. “No such data exists,” said the minister in reply. To a question by Congress’s K V Reddy on the number of people who lost jobs, Gangwar said, “No such survey has been conducted by the Centre.”

On questions related to unemployment, the Centre cited the last labour force survey of 2018-19 where “the estimated unemployment rate and on usual status basis was 5.8% and it was 5.0% for

rural areas

and 7.7% for urban areas”.