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ESAF Garshom

Overview

For more than a decade, Kerala is the inter-state migrant hotspot of the nation. Ernakulam district has the largest concentration of interstate migrant workers in Kerala. The district is estimated to have nearly six lakh migrant workers from other states. Their work timings often prevent them from accessing public healthcare facilities. Time, location and language act as barriers that cripple their access to quality healthcare. As a result, they are forced to rely on quacks or OTC products

ESAF Garshom is a project developed to tackle the issues of quality healthcare for migrants. The project is implemented in association with Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID) and Gram Vikas. As part of the project, a mobile health clinic named “Bandhu Clinic “was started to provide quality healthcare services to migrant labourers. The clinic set up in a minibus was customized to function as a primary healthcare unit and had the presence of a medical officer, nurse and a clinic assistant cum driver

The major objective of the project was to reach the migrant workers who are settled in interior and vulnerable pockets and provide them health check-ups, medicines and referral services. What makes the Bandhu Clinic unique is the follow-up mechanism. The follow-up visits to the camp ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the clinic. The National Health Mission and local PHCs also support the clinic in conducting health camps in migrant-dense areas. This has greatly helped in the identification and prevention of communicable diseases.

Recently, Kerala has been experiencing an unprecedented flow of migrant workers from different parts of India. Higher wages, better employment opportunities and shortage of local labourers make Kerala an ideal job market for migrant workers. Interstate migrant workers have now become an indispensable part of the state’s economy.

The following are some initiatives taken by the Kerala Government for the welfare of migrant workers.

Kerala has introduced the first social security scheme in India for migrant workers.

Since 2008, the Department of Education has been promoting inclusive education for children of migrant workers.

Kudumbashree has initiated efforts to bring migrant women into its fold.

The Department of Health and Family Welfare, through National Health Mission (NHM), has introduced Link Workers to enhance access to healthcare for migrant families.

Workers to enhance access to healthcare for migrant families

Aawaz Insurance Scheme 2016 and Apna Ghar Housing are the two other major schemes introduced for migrant labourers.

A study reveals that the workers have not been able to benefit substantially from any of these schemes as most of the migrant workers who come to Kerala are not recruited by a contractor from their native states. Due to this, the Interstate Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) (ISMW) Act, 1979, does not apply to them in its current form.

The project aided in setting up the Bandhu helpline, a multilingual helpline to address distress calls from migrant workers. This was a joint initiative with Gram Vikas, ESAF Small Finance Bank and Cognizant and was set up immediately after the lockdown commenced. Migrants calling in are supported with information on COVID-19 prevention and treatment, sourcing food, addressing issues related to rentals/house ownerships and train schedules.

Under the project, four resource centres were started in Kalahandi, Odisha in association with Gram Vikas to ensure safe migration. These resource centres serve as a migrant decision support system that facilitates access to information about job opportunities and reduces the difficulties in travel and financial transactions. These centres act as an interface mechanism for migrant workers, their families and communities with the support of local, district and high-level administration for ensuring access to entitlements and social security schemes.

Project Objectives

To act as a resource hub for migrant labourers.

To provide social, health and legal aid for migrant labourers.

To improve the skills and employability of migrant labourers through training programmes

Activities

  • 11,818 migrant workers benefitted from the health camps organized under the project in the Ernakulam district.
  • Three medical camps were conducted for the migrant workers in Palakkad and Thrissur districts. 128 workers were benefitted and were given awareness on Covid care.
  • Launched a Helpline number for migrant labourers.
  • They were provided with Covid protection kits
  • • Distributed 414 food kits to migrant labourers with the support of labour department in Thrissur during lockdown

Impacts

Identified blood groups of the migrant labourers and created a data bank based on that.

Created awareness on controlling blood sugar among the migrants.

Covid-19 awareness generated among the migrant labourers helped them control the spread of the infection.

Around 1,050 migrant labourers were connected with ESAF SFB for financial services after they received financial literacy awareness sessions.

The migrant labourers were trained on financial literacy and savings.

Identified and referred sick migrants to the public health department for treatment.

Migrant labourers were supported with food kits during lockdown, including the 100 migrant families working in tea estates in Malakkappara region.

Affordable healthcare for migrants

The story of Sundari

Sundari, a 26-year-old migrant worker from Coimbatore lives with her husband at Vathuruthy, Kochi, the largest residential pocket of migrant workers from Tamil Nadu. An allergic rhinitis patient since her childhood, she fell ill frequently after moving to Kochi. Due to her illness, she had to visit hospitals very often. Language constraints and exorbitant hospital expenses hindered her treatment and added to her misery.

The mobile Bandhu Clinic used to visit Vathuruthy every Friday evening from 6.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. to provide free treatment to migrant workers. As Dr. Bejoy Abraham of Bandhu Clinic spoke Tamil fluently Sundari was able to convey her challenges easily. After becoming a regular visitor to Bandhu Clinic, she is no longer worried about falling sick. Bandhu Clinic is now a refuge for the migrant workers who leave for work early and return home late.

Extending a helping hand in the nick of time

The story of Chinna Durai

Chinna Durai is a migrant worker from Tamil Nadu. He has been working as a supervisor in the Malakkappara tea garden for the last 10 years. He was in charge of 30 migrant families who were working in the tea plantation. The lockdown rendered the migrant families jobless. The plantation authorities were helpless and the migrant families were left in the lurch. Chinna Durai approached many for help but his requests fell on deaf ears. Later he managed to collect the helpline number of Garshom and informed them about the gravity of the situation.

PDS coordinated with the labour officer and Athirapally panchayath and distributed food kits to the families on time. Chinna Durai was ecstatic and expressed his gratitude as follows, in Tamil, “vellinatukar Kerala mannil swanthakar dha: nandri nandri.......ESAF companyku nandri.”

A visual walkthrough of the project