Kerala: Health insurance scheme for migrants on anvil
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government is launching Awas, a health insurance-based welfare scheme for migrants to get them registered. It will also carry out a digital residence mapping as part of the efforts to tackle the challenges posed by their increasing presence.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the Assembly on Monday that the police special branch was directed to keep on verifying whether those with criminal or extremist backgrounds intrude into the state under their cover. "Since the migrant workers are a floating population, the police station wise registry being maintained was not effective," he said in reply to a calling attention motion notice by V. P. Sajeendran.
“The state also has limitations in imposing any sorts of restrictions on migrants. Hence the new health scheme is being launched with the aim of wooing the migrants to enrol.” Mr Sajeendran said that about 90 percent of the migrants reaching the state would be genuine workers, whereas only ten percent could have criminal track records.