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CLAT 2021 21 Year Experienced Team

National policy on Migrant workers

A NITI Aayog policy draft has proposed the contours of a national policy on migrant workers. Several key
recommendations in the draft can be compared to a government working group report from 2017.
A rights-based approach
f The draft describes two approaches to policy design: one focussed
on cash transfers, special quotas, and reservations; the other which
enhances the agency and capability of the community and thereby
remove aspects that come in theway of an individual's own natural
ability to thrive.
f The policy rejects a handout approach, opting instead for a rights-
basedframework. It seeks to remove restrictions on true agency and
potential of themigrant workers; the goal, should not be to provide
temporary or permanent economic or social aids, which is a rather limited approach.
f Migration should be acknowledged as an integral part of development andgovernment policies should not
hinder but seek to facilitate internal migration .
Issues with existing law

f The 2017 report argued that specific protection legislation for migrant workers was unnecessary. Migrant
workers should be integrated with all worker as part of an overarching framework that covers regular and
contractual work.

f The report discussed the limitations of The Inter State Migrant Workers Act, 1979, which was designed to
protect labourers from exploitation by contractors by safeguarding their right to non-discriminatory
wages, travel and displacement allowances, and suitable working conditions.
f However, this law — which was modeled on a 1975 Odisha law — covered only labourers migrating
through a contractor, and left out independent migrants.
f The 2017 report questioned this approach, given the size of the country's unorganised sector. It called for
a comprehensive law for these workers, which would form the legal basis for an architecture of social
protection. This was in line with the recommendations of a 2007 report by the National Commission for
Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
f The NITI Aayog's policy draft too, mentions that the Ministry of Labour and Employment should amend
the 1979 Act for “effective utilization to protect migrants”.

Glacial Lake Outburst Floods(GLOF)

A glacier break is suspected to have caused the flash floods in Uttarakhand's
Chamoli.In 2020, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had
issued detailed guidelines on how to reduce and deal with disasters caused by
what is scientifically called Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs).

What are Glacial lakes?
A glacial lake is a body of water with origins from glacier activity. They are
formed when a glacier erodes the land, and then melts, filling the depression
created by the glacier.

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