The Covid-19 pandemic posed the huge challenge of hunger, displacement, and unemployment before the government. Several bureaucrats have taken innovative initiatives to ameliorate people’s sufferings. But, one that stands out among the crowd was conceived by the West Bengal government to provide jobs to the migrant workers returning homes during the lockdown.
In one of the first coordinated effort of its kind to generate employment in the times of COVID 19, several districts administrations in West Bengal started working as a “bridge’’ between the unemployed and the potential employers, namely the private factories and industries operating out of the state.
Indian Masterminds found out that a lot is being done in this direction. The District Magistrate of Purulia, Dr. Akanksha Bhaskar held that her office has already roped in a big name, Larsen and Toubro (L&T), to generate employment opportunities.
West Bengal’s Labour and Law Minister Mr. Moloy Ghatak recently said that many districts had stepped up to the need and were talking with respective district chambers of commerce and industries “Their labor wings” he added,“has been asked to help migrant workers find employment.’’
This was one of the rare instances where a directive from a state minister spread far and wide, with many district administrations showing a willingness to act on it.
Purulia District Administration Initiative:
This unfortunate pandemic hit the migrant workers the worst. Dr. Akanksha Bhaskar, the Additional District Magistrate of Purulia, and her team of officers started an initiative to bridge the gap between the demand and supply in Labour market. Purulia District Administration came up with a portal that has migrant worker’s data (field of experience and contact details) fed into it. Migrant workers could register themselves on this website:
www.vishwakarma.puruliya.in and find jobs pertaining to their field of experience where required. This is a first of its kind portal and has already helped around 36,000 workers!
In Purulia, said Dr Bhaskar, industry major L&T had promised to employ hundreds of people. “We are simply trying to work as a bridge between job seekers and employers, just like private players. At the same time, we are gauging the manpower needs of the industries in Purulia,’’ she told the media.
Similarly in West Midnapur, District Magistrate Rashmi Kamal has taken an initiative to arrange employment for over 1500 migrant workers. Already 21 companies here have shown interest to employ these workers. There are various companies in Kharagpur and Jhargram industrial belt of West Midnapur. Ms Rashmi and her team-members are making efforts to rope in companies which could provide employment to the unemployed migrants.
In the exclusive interview with Indian Masterminds, Dr. Akanksha Bhaskar claimed that it was her desire to serve people that inspired her to become a civil servant. “I always used to read about how civil servants were working really well for the people. At that time social media wasn’t this popular as it is now, but even print media consisted stories of a number of civil servants who were working wonders for their districts or states. They always used to inspired me,” she said.
Dr. Bhaskar also used to read a lot about officers improving roads in their area or supplying better sanitation services in their area and many such stories. These types of small interventions weren’t very Earth-shattering, but it definitely helped and brought about positive changes in the citizen’s life and that is what she aspired to do too”, she said.
The zeal with which young IAS officers like Dr. Akanksha Bhaskar, Ms. Rashmi Kamal and several others have started working to provide succor to the unemployed migrant works of West Bengal is really exemplary. It could be lesson for other states too.
