'Migrant Worker's 5-Yr-Old Raped & Killed In Broad Daylight': Plea In Kerala High Court Seeks Enforcement Of Labour Laws, Welfare Measures

In wake of the brutal rape and murder of a girl child from a migrant labourer family hailing from Bihar, a plea has been moved in the Kerala High Court seeking a direction to the State authorities to take effective steps to enforce Labour Laws and welfare measures.

The child went missing on July 28, 2023. She was strangulated and dumped into a waste yard in Aluva market. The police arrested accused Asafaq Alam, also a migrant labourer, in a highly inebriated condition on the same day.

The plea moved by a lawyer seeks the State to ensure safe, hygienic and healthy working conditions for for the migrant workers, and also for ensuring that their employment is preceded by proper registration.

The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice A.J. Desai and Justice V.G. Arun on Wednesday issued notice and sought the response of the State authorities in the matter. 

The petitioner avers in his plea that he was constrained to approach the High Court in view of the repeated failure of the state government and its machinery in properly enforcing registration of migrant workers in Kerala as per the provisions of the Interstate Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, Rules and Orders thereunder and also in ensuring safe, healthy and hygienic living conditions for the migrant workers. 

The petitioner submits that the above said incident along with the chain of crimes happening in the State for the past 10 years indicated the need to regulate and register the employment of migrant workers arriving in the State by ensuring proper working atmosphere along with hygienic and healthy residential requirements. 

The petitioner states that in most places, employers dump workers into small quarters with limited or no facilities, and consequently, any migrant can involve in wrongful and unlawful activities. The petitioner avers that the accused in the present case is also an unregistered migrant from Bihar.

"There is gross failure on the part of the State Government in ensuring proper registration of the migrant workers thereby enforcing healthy and hygienic living conditions to such employees through their employers. The inaction on the part of the State Government is highly arbitrary and unjust," the plea states. 

The petitioner submits that since the family of the victim in the present case is living in the same dwelling as the predator was, it would not be practical for them to continue living in the same place. The petitioner thus states that the family ought to be adequately compensated and rehabilitated, and the amount of Rs. 1 Lakh that had been announced by the State Government would be inadequate and insufficient to "tide over the trauma they suffered". 

The petitioner states that despite the Social Welfare Department having launched the Aswasanidhi scheme with the target of giving benefits to the victims of serious crimes in 2018, there is no specific clause to provide compensation to the family of a girl child who had been brutally raped and murdered, and that the maximum amount prescribed is for victims of acid attacks, which amounts to Rs. 2 Lakhs. 

He adds that the Victim Rehabilitation Scheme, 2001, also discriminates migrant workers by limiting the benefits to local people. The petitioner submits that the said scheme stipulates that the applicant shall be a native resident of Kerala and ought to produce income certificate from the Village Officer to be eligible to be a beneficiary under the scheme. The petitioner accordingly seeks the condition to be quashed to the extent it discriminates between natives and migrants, through the present plea. 

"Apart from the responsibility to the family of the victim, the State owes a responsibility to the people of this State to control and regulate migrant population appropriately. It is highly necessary that the specific directions are issued to register migrant workers and to enforce labour laws compulsorily. The defaulters must be strictly penalized and their license to engage any worker need to be revoked to ensure strict compliance of law. The availability of data with respect to each migrant employee will make collection of antecedents, prevention, and detection of crime more effective for the law enforcement agencies. The availability of identity proof with employer and labour department will make migrant workers more responsible to the society. The accused in the gruesome rape and murder at Aluva was not a registered worker. There was no contractor/entity responsible for the worker as well. In many cases, the investigating agencies had to travel to the native places of migrant worker to nab the culprits since they tend to abscond immediately after the crime. In many cases, lack of details regarding the offenders makes the offences unsolvable," the plea adds. 

The plea thus seeks an amount of Rs. 25 Lakhs to be provided as financial assistance to the family of the minor victim. The petitioner has sought Rs. 5 Lakhs to be disbursed as immediate assistance to the family of the victim. 

The plea also seeks the issuance of a direction to the respondents to establish an Institution in the nature of Employment Exchange for all migrant workers linking it with social welfare measures and make it compulsory to have an employment card for engaging such workers by contractors/establishment/Individuals, and to conduct proper training sessions to migrant workers requiring them to abide by the laws of the State and to abstain from any criminal activities.  

Additionally, the plea seeks the issuance of a direction to the State authorities to provide effective police patrolling in and around Migrant workers camps and to release petrol and other allowances to the Police Stations for the effective implementation of the same. 

The petition has been moved through Advocates Sajith Kumar V., Vivek A.V., Godwin Joseph, and Ronit Zachariah. 

Case Title: Satheesh V.T. v. State of Kerala & Ors. 

Case Number: W.P.(C) 25306 of 2023