Need for survey of urban, rural poor in Punjab: Task force

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 28

As a long-time measure to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, the task force on the lockdown exit strategy has recommended to the state government to conduct scientific mapping of urban and rural poor.

Learning lessons from the free distribution of 10 lakh packets of dry ration to the poor and migratory labour by the state, it has been observed that a large section of state’s workforce is left out from the public distribution system (PDS). As per the current assessment, about 20 to 25 lakh eligible persons are not included in the beneficiary list under the PDS scheme.

“Distribution of dry ration only helped in retaining the labour to some extend as other states witnessed mass exodus,” said a government functionary.

Experts have pointed out that local daily wage rural labourers, migrant labourers and other workforce are not covered under Central or state welfare schemes like MNREGA, NFSA and Jan Dhan programme. Punjab’s share of informal workers (non-agriculture) stands at 51.8, second in terms of percentage share of informal workers in the country. To prepare for any such disaster, the task force has pointed out that the scientific mapping would improve state’s understanding of its workforce, result in better coverage under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme and provide a platform for assessing labour availability in the state. For the benefit of the unregistered construction workers, the committee has recommended payment of Rs 6,000 relief allowance to all eligible workers, apart from the 2,82,576 registered construction workers. Funds to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore are lying in the Workers’ Welfare Fund.