Kerala government has launched ‘Swachh Bhai, Swasth Bhai’ project on Sunday for improving the facilities and sanitation at immigrant labour camps in state.
Inaugurating the project in Kottayam district Minister for Forests and Transport Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said the State government would take more steps to improve the sanitation and health facilities for immigrant labourers.
The Hindu reports that the ground work that preceded the project launch commenced with the visit of the authorities to the more than 500 camps to get first-hand information about the situation existing there. Camps where more than five labourers were staying were taken up for survey.
After the authorities’ inspection to the camps, about 49 camps in Kottayam district were reportedly closed and labourers moved to other camps in May 2015.
Apart from sanitation condition improvement labourers would be provided with health cards and other identification documents by the local government. Immigrant labourers working in the hotel and restaurant sector would have to get a doctor’s certificate on Hepatitis A and B and Typhoid. Those working in other sectors would have to get health certificates on skin, eye and throat diseases and on general health condition, the report says.