Bengal: 4th biggest source of migrant workers launches separate health card for them
Opposition parties in Bengal have used the outflux of migrant workers as a major issue against the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC)
On March 12, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee launched a separate health card for migrant workers as a variant of the Swasthya Sathi scheme, which covers annual medical expenses of up to ₹5 lakh per family.
The card was introduced months after the state government started preparing its first database on migrant workers in September with the launch of the seventh phase of the Duare Sarkar (government at the doorstep) programme launched in 2020 for the delivery of services and welfare schemes at panchayat and municipal levels.
Registration of migrant workers was among the key goals of the seventh phase of Duare Sarkar. “In 2020, when the [Covid-19] lockdown left people stranded across the nation, a rough estimate indicated that around 1.1 million migrant workers were from Bengal. Murshidabad district accounted for the highest migration among the state’s 23 districts,” a government official said.
A second official said for the standard health card used in Bengal, the government pays the premium and hospitals charge the insurance companies. “In the case of migrant workers, payments will be sent directly to hospitals through third parties.”
According to the 2011 census, Bengal was the fourth biggest source of migrant workers in the country after Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan. Around 580,000 people migrated from Bengal between 2001 and 2011.
As many as 103 people from Bengal, mostly migrant workers, were among the 293 passengers killed when three trains collided in Odisha’s Balasore on June 2 last year. On August 23, a bridge collapsed in Mizoram, killing 23 construction workers from Bengal’s Malda. Three migrant workers from Murshidabad died of electrocution while working at an under-construction high-rise building at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh on August 25.
Opposition parties in Bengal have used the outflux of migrant workers as a major issue against the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), calling migration an indicator of its failure to generate employment.
The issue has been raised more aggressively in areas with large Muslim populations apparently because the Muslims have been key TMC supporters. The biggest chunk of migrants come from Muslim-majority areas.
Muslims accounted for Bengal’s 27.01% population, according to the 2011 census. They influence poll results in 120 of 294 assembly seats. Murshidabad district has Bengal’s highest Muslim population (66.28%), followed by Malda (51.27%), North Dinajpur (49.92%), South 24 Parganas (35.57%) and Birbhum (37.06%).
A Bengal government survey showed a substantial number of migrant workers were also from districts with high Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Scheduled Caste (SC) populations. Over 10,000 migrant workers were registered in 12 days in September in Purulia, which has a combined ST and SC population of 38%.
Bengal BJP chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the actual number of migrant workers was at least six million far more than what the government claims. He called the launch of health card an election gimmick. “The state government cannot make this scheme work because of its current financial condition.”
He said instead of providing health cards, the government should find a way to generate local employment opportunities so that these people do not need to migrate.
