SC seeks position of National Database for Unorganised Workers

The Supreme Court in a suo moto case regarding problems and miseries of migrant workers, today sought information on the position of the National Database for Unorganised Workers (NDUW).

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and M R Shah directed the Centre to file a Counter-Affidavit and to seek instructions as to what steps what have been taken under the new Social Security Code, 2020.

The suo moto case was taken up to address the problems being faced by migrant workers in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bench emphasised that the need of the hour is to ensure that the benefits reach the needy persons, for this the process of registration had to be speeded up.
The Court said that there is a need to have a supervising authority to ascertain whether the schemes were reaching the needy or not.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appeared for the intervenors and submitted that the distribution of dry ration under the Atmanirbhar Scheme needs to be extended to those who did not possess ration cards. He sought the distribution of cooked meals and widening of its scope.

Bhushan informed the Court that Delhi Government has stated that it is providing it at 185 places. “It's a huge State. No one will go if you provide it at select places which are far away. Last time, it was provided at 5000 places. The situation is grimmer this year," he added.

He further informed the Court that cash transfer being provided only to construction workers, should be extended to other sections like rickshaw pullers and street vendors, as construction workers form only a small part of migrant workers.

The Court observed that cash transfer required registration and expressed dissatisfaction that though the order requiring registration was given a year back, the process was very slow.
Justice Shah also noted that while contractors did not take any concrete steps to register labourers, the labourers themselves were unable to get registered due to lack of uniformity. "Registration of unorganized workers first needs to be completed. As of today, the migrants have to go for registration. What we want is that these people should go to the migrants. It should be two-way. The machinery should reach the migrants," Justice Shah said.