Surat: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today inaugurated a migrant worker cell of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) at Udhna based iLab in Surat.

Migrant Cell has been created by SMC for the first time in the Country under the ‘National Urban Livelihood Mission Scheme’ to prepare a database of migrant workers in the city of Surat with mapping. The city has presence of over 15 lakh migrants. Their data is required during natural calamities and other urgent situations. Newly opened migrant cell of SMC will have the names, address, native place and other details of migrant laborers ready in its data. The city administration had felt need for such data during the recently Covid-19 linked lockdown period. The city of Surat will emerge as the first city to offer affordable housing units to migrant labourers on rent. Surat Urban Development Authority (SUDA) has built 339 units at Sachin already. They shall be rented to migrants.

The Minister said: the migrant workers cell with linkage with the city livelihood centre will help extend all kind of assistance and government-led benefits to our hardworking migrant workers. The migrant worker cell will do a detailed mapping of migrant workers and classify them according to their skill sets, which will go a long way in connecting ‘Shramshakti’ to relevant industries and boost their livelihood and also ensure their dignity. The establishment of a migrant cell is another big step and a model initiative towards protecting the social and economic security of our migrant work force. The Covid19 challenge has further galvanised efforts and called upon the need for better planning for protecting rights of migrant workers. Surat, home to migrant workers from across India has led from the front in making our migrant population self-reliant. DeshGujarat