HC flays officials for sketchy data on migrant workers

A recent judgment of the Madras High Court’s Madurai Bench has brought to light the absence of verification by authorities which has led to employment of minors at textile mills and unsafe working conditions for migrant labourers.

The judgment was passed in a case involving two girls. The girls, one of them minor, worked in a textile mill in Dindigul district. They were later taken to Bengaluru by two co-workers, who were migrant labourers from Odisha. The girls were deserted in the neighbouring State. After habeas corpus petitions (HCPs) were moved by their parents, the girls were secured from Bengaluru.

During the hearing of the HCPs, a Division Bench comprising Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and P. Velmurugan questioned how a minor was employed in the textile mill.

“This goes to show that there is no verification done by the authorities concerned who are statutorily bound to enforce the labour laws. Is there bonded labour in a sophisticated set up? It is high time something serious was done,”  the court observed.

While closing these petitions, the judges observed that the girls employed in these mills were cheated many a time as they hailed from very poor families with little or no education. They further said:

“The official machinery should do something more effective, so that the girls who are employed in such textile mills are given a safe working atmosphere.”

‘Form special team’

The judges also directed Dindigul Superintendent of Police to form a special team consisting of officers, including a woman officer and a probationary officer and work out the modalities so that the police had requisite details on migrant employees employed in various textile mills.

“In the process of such verification, several other factors will come to light and that can be shared with other officials of the Revenue Department, Labour Department Employees, State Insurance Corporation etc.,” they said, and further directed that a copy of the order be sent to the District Collector. During the hearing of the case, the judges were informed that there were several textile mills near Vedasandur and a substantial number of employees employed by those mills hailed from other States