NEW DELHI: The Leh administration has set a template for dealing with migrant labourers by offering counselling sessions along with food grains to calm the nerves of roughly 7,800 daily-wagers stuck in the cold, inhospitable terrain due to the lockdown. Simultaneously, the authorities have persuaded banks for doorstep delivery of cash to the Garib Kalyan Yojana beneficiaries in villages.“Counsellors at SNM Hospital have been pressed into service for counselling migrants within a radius of 30 kms of Leh. Some 100-150 labourers are being counselled at a time, maintaining Covid-19 protocols. Health centres are doing it at ‘tehsil’ level,” Leh deputy commissioner Sachin Kumar Vaishya told TOI.Stanzin Tseyangs, clinical psychologist at the hospital, told TOI food and an uncertain future are the main reason for anxiety among the migrants. “First issue is food. How much government ration is coming. How long it will continue. Next is how long the situation continues; whether they will get livelihoods back or should they stay or go back. These are the things that agitates their minds,” she said.Vaishya said the counselling sessions explain the health protocols and reassure the labourers that the government is here to take care of them. The administration is giving 2.5 kg of rice, a kg of pulses and cooking oil to each labourer, expected to last 8-9 days. There is no ‘atta (wheat flour)’ and salt etc are being given on need-basis as the administration scrapes the bottom of winter stocks. Fresh supplies are still 10 days away.For people living in distant villages and isolated hamlets, the administration persuaded banks to deliver cash to the beneficiaries under the Centre’s Garib Kalyan Yojana. “These beneficiaries are stuck in their villages/hamlets and cannot go to the banks or cash points due to the lockdown. Bank teams with a list of beneficiaries will visit the villages, verify credentials before starting the withdrawal process. A tehsil/village level functionary will double-check the beneficiaries before cash is handed over,” Vaishya said.There are about 5,500 labourers from outside Ladakh, mostly from Bihar and Jharkhand . The rest are from Kargil and Zanskar who could not return due to the lockdown. Tens of thousands of labourers and semi-skilled workers descend upon Ladakh in search of jobs. Most of the labour force is employed for road-building or construction. They return to their home states once winter sets in, with few thousands delaying their return as much as possible.