Most migrants do not have ID proofs in Perumbavur and Aluva

THRISSUR: Most of the migrant labourers in Perumbavur and Aluva  do not have any ID proofs other than a paper signed by the local body members in villages in Assam and West Bengal with their seals to prove their identity. This has been revealed by those who were associated with a pilot project to issue photo identity cards to the  migrant labourers on the basis of the valid official documents possessed by them.

Mr R. Nandakumar, state general secretary of Akshaya Entrepreneurs Confederation, who was part of the pilot project by using the software developed to keep track of  the floating migrant labour population in the state,  told DC that during  November and December,  2014, they had started collecting the data  in Perumbavur and Aluva to be given to  police stations in the region. 

There were more than one lakh migrants in Perumbavur  and only 3,000 turned out at the camp ready to share their ID proofs like voter’s ID cards, Aadhar cards or letter from the collectorates in their states. “While collecting the digital data, including the finger prints, there were a minority of workers from Assam and West Bengal who had  valid ID  proofs and spoke Assamese and Bengali language.  Those without valid documents spoke a different language, indicating that they may have crossed the border from Bangladesh,” he added.

Smelling trouble, the agents of these labourers and the lodge owners in the locality were not  co-operative with the project. The pilot project was conducted on the basis of a letter issued by then ADGP B. Sandhya citing that the police stations could make use of the software to collect the data of migrant labourers.

She was then the nodal officer of Janamaithri Suraksha Project, he said. There are 25 lakh  migrants  in Kerala with an annual arrival rate of 2.35 lakhs. The State Home Ministry in 2012 had stated that only 63,200 such workers had  done the mandatory registration with the police.