Team News Riveting
Raipur, September 26
With big dreams, Dukalu Ram reached Mumbai city and got employed as a labourer with a civil contractor, pocketing a handful penny to meet his daily needs.
A resident of Pallari in Balodabazar district, Dukalu has been in his early twenties. His Castle of Spain soon shattered as he lost his work. The worst to come, his belongings were also lost.
With no one to help, he spent hard time for a couple of days sleeping on the footpaths or railway stations. He took the challenge and boarded a train without ticket. The four days was a nightmare for the youth, who anyhow reached his village last month.
The story is not confined to Dukalu; it is common for the migrants crossing over the state boundaries in search of job. The Vishnu Deo Sai government in Chhattisgarh has however come forward to address the issue.
A new initiative has been launched under the leadership of Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai for the welfare of unorganized workers. “The umbrella scheme, ‘Atal Labor Empowerment Scheme’, has been started for the holistic development of unorganized workers and their families,” a senior official in the labour department said.
To provide support and guidance to migrant workers, ‘Mor Chinahari Bhavan’ (Migrant Worker Centers) will be established in the first phase in five states – Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Gujarat, and Maharashtra – where a large number of migrant workers reside.
Additionally, 100 private hospitals have been contracted to provide cashless treatment to workers, including super-speciality treatment for heart diseases, kidney diseases, brain disorders, and complex surgeries.
The Labor Department’s umbrella scheme is named ‘Atal Labor Empowerment Scheme’. Through this, workers and their families will receive benefits from all government schemes at a single location, facilitated by the ‘Shramev Jayate’ portal. A new scheme is being launched soon to provide interest subsidies on loans taken by registered workers for economic activities, enabling them to become self-reliant and self-employed. Furthermore, divisional-level labor welfare offices are being established in each division of the state for better implementation and continuous monitoring of schemes for the welfare of unorganized workers.
To provide better healthcare facilities to workers, new dispensaries are being established in areas with a high concentration of workers, including Tilda, Urla (Raipur), Lara, and Kharsia (Raigarh). To provide cashless tertiary medical facilities to insured beneficiaries, the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) has entered into agreements with 106 private hospitals in the state. These hospitals have super-specialty doctors who provide treatment for various types of heart diseases, kidney diseases, brain disorders, and complex surgeries.
To provide specialized medical facilities for inpatients, the ESIC has constructed two 100-bed hospitals in Raipur and Korba. Outpatient department (OPD) services have already been started in these hospitals for the treatment of insured beneficiaries. Construction of 100-bed hospitals in Bhilai and Raigarh is in progress. In addition, the ESIC has approved the construction of a 100-bed hospital in Bilaspur.
The Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Labour Food Scheme has been launched to provide affordable meals to workers near their workplaces. These centers provide a full meal to workers for just 5 rupees. In the first phase, 21 centers have been started in Raipur, Durg, Rajnandgaon, Bilaspur, Raigarh, Mahasamund, and Surajpur. In 2024-25, 24 new food centers will be started in 9 districts under this scheme.
For the welfare of 24.31 lakh construction workers registered under 60 categories with the Chhattisgarh Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, Rs. 505.07 crore is proposed to be spent in 2024-25. For the Chhattisgarh Labour Welfare Board, Rs 6 crore has been allocated in the budget for the state government’s grant for 2.12 lakh registered organized workers in 2024-25.
Currently, the regional office operates 13 schemes for the social security and welfare of registered organized workers and their families, including schemes for accident and death benefits, educational scholarships, skill development, free bicycle distribution, free sewing machine distribution, and the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Labor Welfare Food Program. For these schemes, an allocation of approximately ₹18.30 crore has been made from the regional office’s accumulated funds for the financial year 2024-25.
