The Union government is conducting five different types of surveys through which it aims to collect the data of all migrant workers, maids, professionals, etc. The Labour Bureau of the Ministry of Labour and Employment has been designated to complete these surveys in seven months.'

The Labour Bureau on Friday signed an agreement with Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd (BECIL) for providing technical and manpower support to the bureau in the conduct of All India Surveys on Migrant Workers & All India Quarterly Establishment-based Employment Survey (AQEES).

The surveys to be undertaken by the bureau will be integrated with the technology provided by BECIL, which will substantially reduce the time taken for completion of surveys by at least 30-40 per cent. The Labour Ministry has decided that the manpower engaged through the IT partner for supporting these surveys will be offered fixed term employment. It is a historic provision in the recent labour codes which will bestow various benefits on the workers engaged for a fixed term by treating them at par with permanent workers.

Labour Bureau Director General (DG) D.P.S. Negi told IANS: "The actual situation of the employment in the country will be clear after the completion of these five surveys. The government requires data to formulate any policy. These surveys will provide an extensive data of all the professionals, migrant labourers as well as those who are working in unorganised sectors and employment opportunities being generated in unorganised sector which will help the government in framing new policy on employment."

“For the migrants’ survey we are taking a sample size of 300,000 households and for the establishments we are taking 150,000 companies’ quarter-on-quarter. This is huge for any type of survey conducted in the country," said D.P.S Negi.

By comparison, the quarterly employment survey India started in 2008-09 following the global financial crisis and continued till 2017, used to take a sample size of around 2,500 companies. The present survey, significantly larger in its size and scope, will cover firms employing 10 or more workers.

Labour minister Santosh Gangwar said the results of both the surveys will generate highly useful data for effective policymaking in the field of labour and employment. “We all know and have seen how the pandemic impacted the migrants. We are still not out of the pandemic but a robust data will help in better policymaking," Gangwar said.

Labour and employment secretary Apurva Chandra said from anecdotal evidence to hard facts, the survey will provide concrete evidence about the socio-economic condition of migrants, the number of migrants, their space and area of work. Chandra said the migrant’s survey will be completed in seven months.

This will address a major data gap in the biggest segment of the Indian labour market.

On a similar vein the Migrant Worker Survey is the first focused survey on studying the socio-economic and working conditions of migrant workers. It will also assess the impact of COVID19 on migrant workers in India.