SC tells states, UTs to give ration cards to nearly 80 mn migrant workers

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed States and Union Territories (UTs) to issue ration cards to about 80 million migrant workers, registered in the eShram portal but excluded from the National Food Security Act (NFSA), within two months.

States and UTs are required to file a compliance affidavit in this regard. The case will be heard again in two months.

The bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah took note of the States and UTs’ inaction to comply with its direction of April 20, 2023, stating the same.

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The eShram portal has 286 million registrants, of which 206.3 million are registered on ration card data. “Meaning thereby, the rest of the registrants on the eShram portal are still without ration cards. Without a ration card, a migrant/ unorganised labourer or his family members may be deprived of the benefit of schemes and even benefits under the National Food Security Act,” the court had said last April.

Unnecessary delays

On Tuesday, the court expressed concern over unnecessary delays, like the requirement to update eKYC for all 800 million ration cardholders before complying with the court’s orders.

The court said the matching of eShram registrants with NFSA beneficiaries had already been done, and on that basis, it was found that 8 crore people do not have ration cards and thus did not get the benefit of food grains under NFSA.

The court also said any exercise of eKYC that the Centre wants to undertake should happen at the same time and must not come in the way of issuing ration cards. The ration cards must be issued irrespective of the quotas defined in Section 3 of NFSA.

The Section talks about the right to receive food grains at subsidised prices by persons belonging to eligible households under the Targeted Public Distribution System.

The petitioners in the case argued that over 100 million workers may be excluded from the Food Safety Act, citing outdated statistics from the 2011 census, which fail to account for population growth.

Ensure inclusive coverage

The court had said it was the duty of a welfare state to include every migrant worker on the ration card roll expeditiously.

The court had said in August 2022 that the States and Union Territories could reach out to the workers through District Collectors “so that more and more registrants on the eShram portal are issued the ration cards and they get the benefit of the benevolent schemes floated by the Union government and the State governments, including the benefit under the National Food Security Act”.

The apex court had then directed the government to “look into the same and come out with a formula and/or appropriate policy/scheme, if any, so that the benefits under NFSA are not restricted based on the Census 2011. And, more and more needy citizens get the benefit under the National Food Security Act, keeping in mind what has been observed and held by this Court in a catena of decisions that ‘Right to Food’ is a fundamental right available under Article 21 of the Constitution.”

“The Union government may look into the same by considering the figures/projection of population increase during 2011-2021. This would be an assessment of the increase in population and file their response on the next date of hearing,” the court had said.

Pointing out the need for registration of unorganised sector workers, the court said the government should ensure such people can access benefits under various welfare schemes and policies.