Living with uncertainty and desperate to back home thousands of laborers finally landed in New Delhi in last week of April this year. Few of them returned home and many tried to search work for themselves.
As a result of which they were duped by overseas placement agencies in Delhi. They offered some lucrative work assignments in London and other places and had volunteered for arranging work Visas and Air Tickets. In this way 127 labouerers from Odisha and other states paid Rs. 80 thousand to the tune of 1, 20,000 to an Agent in Delhi for working Visas and Air Tickets. Finally when they reached New Delhi Airport on 3rd May for London, they found their tickets have been cancelled; finding nowhere to go they registered complain in Kirtinagar Police Station in Delhi and after a long battle and after the intervention of some volunteers Delhi Police’s anti human trafficking cell has arrested agent Jatindra Singh. And plumbers from Odisha returned to Odisha with the help of a Labour Officer deputed from Odisha.
The story of 12 plumbers from Odisha’s Kendrapara district is now hangs in balance. They are now in double whammy. Whatever amounts, they have earned during their work in Tripoli in Libya have been paid to the agent Jatindra Singh.
This incident proved that migration goes unchecked and unaccounted in the country. The protection and enforcement clauses and provisions provided in “The Interstate Migrant
Workmen (R.E. &C.S) Act 1979” are not sufficient or handicapped .Even deputed Labour Officer Pradeep Kumar Mohanty admitted that,” we could not do anything in this case because overseas employment involved in this incident and neither the migrants nor the contractor registered here or provided information with the department”.
The larger question is, with hundreds of labour laws and protection mechanism in place, why migrant cases are not taken seriously? Then, why the only Act, which is supposed to be regulating the employment of the interstate migrant workmen and to provide for their conditions of service has become handicapped?
Is there a need to amend the said Act? Then the answer is yes, says, Md .Amin of Sramika Sahayog.
Amin further added, “not only these, thousands of Migrant workers from Odisha have been rescued from brick kilns in AP,Tamilnadu recently , even women are not spared, they have been duped by pimps and dalals are taken to New Delhi, Jhansi and parts of Tamilnadu and Kerala either with marriage or job assurances”.
Of late, state government has decided to set up a Special Labour Cell to monitor Inter State Migration and to keep a tab on Contractors and Agents involved in illegal labour practices, violating existing labour laws and sending people to various places without informing or registering with authorities. The proposed Cell will be headed by Assistant Labour Commissioner (ALC) with support from District level Officers and Assistant Labour Officers. A centralized database will be created with records of migrants and contractors for monthly review and follow up.
“Setting up a special cell with new task is definitely a step forward, but what about the already existing migration cell in Labour Commissioner’s office and ALC posted in Balugaon to register, monitor and take up the day to day issues related to migrants”, argues, Anam Barik, an activist of Pravasi Odia Sramika Surakhya Manch (POSSM).
He further added, yes, there is a need to have a migration cell but it should be equipped with adequate staff, updated database and monitoring mechanism besides enforcing power. Earlier, GoO had deployed two senior Labour Officers for Surat and Mumbai region but subsequently they have been withdrawn. Mere tabbing contractors will not serve the purpose, government need to do more in terms of seasonal and regular migrants. The state should come up with a detailed plan to tackle the menace. One of the main issues; is registrations of all out-bound labourers, at the place of origin apart from and in places of destination and issue them with Identity Cards. The registration could be in Railway stations, Bus Stands, Gram Panchayat Offices even in villages with Ward Members.
In a recent statement, state Labour Commissioner, Mr.Alekh Chandra Padhiary has admitted at least 1.8 million people are migrating annually from the state out of them only 50,000 have been registered. Due to non availability of data on them, it has been practically difficult to ensure minimum wage, labour rights and providing compensation to them on account of sickness and even death.
POSSM in other hand has estimated, there are more than 2 million people working outside the state, that includes nearly 7 lakh in Surat,3 lakh in Gandhidham, Kandla,Bharuch,Olanga and other places in Gujarat,2lakh in Mumbai and in Pune,5 lakh in Kerala,Bengalure,Hydrabad,Chenai and remaining 3lakh in other places like Kolkata, New Delhi, J&K,MP,UP,Haryan and Punjab. Besides these nearly 5 to 7 lakh seasonal migrants are shuttling between Orissa and other destinations regularly in a year.
Lakhs of Odia migrants have chosen Surat in South Gujarat as the place of their work – identified for the obvious reasons, its demanding job market, booming industrial hubs, ever growing Textile, especially Power loom sector along with Diamond and Jari Industry etc.
According to estimates it has been stated that -At least 7 lakh Odias are working in Surat. Mostly in power looms units. The average wage they draw per month is about Rs 3,000 to 7, OOO. Almost 75% of them are not registered labourers- without any basic labour privileges like provident fund, gratuity bonus, pension, holidays etc. They are not even issued with any Identity Card or slip to recognize. Apart from these, they don’t have any facilities or privileges like, Basic minimum wage, standard working hours, basic dwelling, drinking water, primary health facilities, basic education for their children and job guarantee are few but important problems.
Though, they have to stay there for months and years together-many alone, very few with families, have not been availed or provided with Pucca houses or dwelling with minimum facilities. They have to toil and boil with Surat’s organized slums without proper Air, Water, Sanitation and electricity. Due to unavailability of Odia Schools and Odia Textbooks, children in tender age leave education for work, few Odia Schools established with Odia Samaj’s initiatives lack buildings (class rooms), teachers and text books.
This city’s organized slums now house more than 17 lakh migrant labourers from Orissa, Andhra, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu besides wage labourers from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Maharashtra and Gujarat itself. Dense and dingy living conditions, long working hours and oppressive work environments make the lives of many migrants a living hell. The location of their slums is determined mainly by nearness to worksites, available patches of land along the roads and rail tracks, open spaces adjacent to factory walls, low lying areas and river and canal banks
Health is another area of concern for many- because of late working hour’s adequate homes and rooms, proper food and drinking water, sanitation facilities; – they fall in with a number of contaminated diseases, epidemic like Plague, Cholera and other viral fever etc. HIV – AIDS and other STDs are fast spreading among youth and new entrants to Surat because of loneliness and unsafe sex etc- as most of them migrate within the age group of 14 to 25 and those who are married, left home their wives in their villages. Not only these, Odia labourers have been deliberately and constantly targeted and been humiliated by local authorities, Mill owners, Police and Mafias with no or less fault of theirs.
Another important aspect of Migration issue is the Remittance. The state gets around Rs.3,000 crorers per annum(as the remittance from migrant workers, working outside the state) coming to the state from different parts of the country, but no smooth remittance of hard earned money to the dependent family members. Out of these 3,000 crorers (roughly estimated), nearly 1,000 crorers from Gujarat, Rs.1000 crorers from Surat, Rs. 100 crorers from Andhra Pradesh and the remaining amount from other parts of the country and abroad. Even though they use to send money regularly, they still use the method of Toppawalla, peer network and general money order as the system to send their hard earned money. But due to absence of adequate banking network/system and above all non issuance of Bank Passbooks- due to their Identity problem, they have to face the real problem.
Most of the Odia migrants in Surat are from Ganjam district. Though Ganjam is among the developed districts, because of shrinking natural resources, decreasing cultivable land, regular floods and drought have left the dist with increasing labour forces migrating outside the state.Ganjam.Bolangir and Sundergarh, Nuapara and Koraput have been the districts where migration is rampant.
Similar is the condition of Odia migrants in South India, people from western Odisha and particularly from Bolangir travel all the way to Hydrabad, Chenai and Bengalure during early summer to work in brick kilns. They are subjected to severe exploitation even women are not spared by both contractors and Brick kiln owners. Almost every day we read reports of exploitation, turture ad sufferings of migrants from KBK region. Either they are unpaid or, held by labour contractors. No one one is there to rescue them.
Banshidhar Behera of Western Odisha Voluntary Association (WOVA),” In an average nearly 4 lakh people migrates annually from KBK. Just before Nuakhai, the mass festival of the region Contractors from Southern states come and camp here to give advance amount to labourers and take them away”. He further added, Tribal and labour households and villages will witness deserted look during this period. Various reports from the field suggest the migration economy of Western Odisha is around 80 crorers, the amount transected for this purpose.
KBK has become the synonym of Poverty, known worldwide as the poverty stricken and most backward area .Almost every day media reports the sufferings of migrant labourers, encroachment of tribal land by non-tribals, forcibly eviction of people from their homeland and depriving them from natural resources, failure of government schemes like MNREGS.
Despite plethora of programmes and projects like RLTAP for KBK, Biju KBK Yojana,WORLP,OTLP,WODC-besides special attention by Planning Commission and other state and Central agencies and especially provisions in NRHM,MNREGS,PMSY have failed to revive the life and livelihood of people there.
As a result of which, we have been witnessing phenomenon of drought, crop failure and land alienation regularly. Planning Commission has recently finalized for a projected outlay of Rs.4, 550 crore to expedite development of KBK districts an Eight Year Perspective Plan for KBK districts from the year 2009-10 to 2016-17.
Migration is not the recent phenomenon; it exists through our civilization and formation of nation state. People migrate from one region to another region or city in search of work. According to the latest estimate of IOM, more than 50mln people migrate from one place to another in an average. In India rough estimate puts the number as nearly 8 million people work as migrant laborers. But due to lack of attention and absence of policy guidelines to look after their well being, they have been isolated as community and sometimes socially ostracized .Mere labor laws are not sufficient to intervene for the state, though a dozen odd laws are there; no state government is ready to recognize and provide identity to them. Even the “INTER STATE MIGRANT WORKMENT ACT, 1979” which is supposed to protect the exploitation of laborers and rescue them when they need, besides ensuring their livelihood and wages proved nonfunctional.
However, considering the above said plights and problems of Odia Migrants- all it need is the intervention of our state government to at least provide safety to the people, in ensuring their basic labour and human rights privileges and facilities; besides engaging in talks with the concern state governments and its allied departments.