Prakash Javadekar & team tasked with handling migrants’ issue in media

New Delhi: A committee of ministers led by information & broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar has been tasked with the job of improving the government's communication on the issue of migrant workers and strengthening its outreach to them, in the media.

The team comprising also Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Hardeep Puri, Kiren Rijiju and Babul Supriyo has been asked to revamp the government's messaging on the issue and look for ways to make the steps taken to support the migrant workers more visible in the communication.

A person in the know of the matter said the committee had already met more than once.


The panel will analyse the communication on migrants’ issues and explore ways on how law enforcement and administrative agencies could have done better in many cases, the role of state governments and how the crisis is being reported in every state. It will also look at how fake news and lack of information have amplified the crisis, with migrants often walking for hours with little or no information about trains.

Images and reports of restive workers, desperate to return to states such as UP and Bihar, walking under the sun with their families comprising little children have dominated media coverage of the Covid-19 crisis for the past few days. Union ministers have blamed also Congress-ruled states for not cooperating enough to facilitate the return of the migrants by asking the Centre for adequate trains.

An empowered group of secretaries is already working to suggest ways to improve the Centre's communication on Covid-19.