Orissa Govt's BPL validation will exclude migrant labourers

Umi Daniel

As per the Government of Orissa’s notification, 100% verification of the household surveyed during the 2002 BPL census will be validated within a span of 4 months beginning from November 2009-January 2010. It seems, the BPL validation process is going to leave out more than 10 lakh migrants who will not be able to enroll themselves in the BPL validation. This is because the seasonal migration cycle which begins from October-June will deny the migrants to get themselves enroll, participate in the household survey and take part in the Grama Sabha which is scheduled between November 2009-January 2010.

The 2002 BPL survey has acknowledged migration as one of the criteria of rural vulnerability. Migration related to seasonal and casual work has been considered as key indicator for the survey. In Orissa 76,84,371 households were surveyed under the 2002 BPL survey carried out by the Govt of India. Out of which 30,28,526 households were reported as migrants and coming under the category of seasonal and casual work. The percentage of rural migration to the total surveyed rural household in Orissa is little less than 50%. The high prevalence rate of migration is a stark testimony to the ill implementation of government social security and poverty alleviation programme. Poverty estimation has been a tough, complex and critical task for both the central and state government. The survey methodology and criteria adopted for the 1997 poverty estimate and 2000 BPL survey has been in question for its pro poor intent and efficiency to enroll the deserving rural household in the BPL.

The BPL is passport for a poor person to avail all the antipoverty, welfare and social security entitlements from the government. However, as per 2002 BPL validation, the rural household who will score below 13 points (out of the total score of 52) will be eligible for the new BPL inclusion. Wide spread apprehension has been raised about the 13 point questionnaire which probably might eliminate more deserving families rather include the vulnerable and eligible households into the list. The central government has been insisting that Govt of Orissa should reduce the current BPL coverage of 41.56 lakh to 38 lakh. This means 3.56 lakh BPL families need to be eliminating from the current list.

While it is vital for the government to include the most vulnerable and eliminate the most undeserving families in the BPL survey, exclusion of migrant families in the process will pose immense concern for everyone. It is high time that the government should come up with some policy direction to address these issues on priority and facilitate a effective mechanism in which the poor will be included rather get thrown out from the process.

Far from home-close to education

Umi Daniel,
While working with an International agency both in Orissa and Andhrapradesh, the author was actively engage in conceptualizing, designing and executing migrant children’s education programme both at the sources and destination with active collaboration of government and NGO networks. On this Teachers day, this article is dedicated to the young volunteer teachers who have shown excellent courage and conviction to provide education to the children and preventing them from becoming child labour.

Migrant Brick kiln workers who are usually semi skilled are one of most exploited, un-organised and un-regulated labour forces in India. According to some studies, there are around 50,000 brick kilns operating in the country, employing around five lakh workers (the figures may be much higher then what has been indicated). The National Commission on Rural Labour (1991) estimates that more than 10 million rural migrants work in brick kilns. The Commission also notes that brick kilns provide temporary employment to around 10, 00,000 workers.

The brick kilns of Andhra Pradesh employ thousands of seasonally migrating laborers numbering around 200,000, mostly drawn from Western Orissa. These laborers migrate in semi-bonded conditions due to a near-total absence of sustainable livelihood, food entitlement and employment options.

All members of the family work in the kiln, including children who often work as non-paid or less paid workers. While parents remain busy in brick making, the children are usually engaged for manual transporting, tending and conditioning of the bricks under the hot sun. One would be startled to know that child workers alone constitute around 22% of the brick kiln workforce. Most of the children are school dropouts.

Migration, child labour and education:

With their parents becoming regular migrants and staying away from the village for nearly 6-8 months a year, about 45% of the total enrolled children drop out to join their parents in their economic pursuits to far-off brick kilns in Andhra Pradesh. Persistent absence from school leads to their names being struck off from the school register. Even when they are back in the villages, they are not able to re-enroll, and are again forced them into wage labor.

It is estimated that, some 30,000-35,000 labour units (each comprising three people) are recruited from western Orissa by intermediary labour contractors for the brick kilns. The total estimate of the children recruited for the work is around 25,000-30,000 followed by another 5,000-8,000 children who accompany their families to the work site. A quick review of the attendance and village registers maintained in Bolangir by CADMB( civil society network) tells us that the drop out rate in the primary schools during 2001-03, were 35%; the rate is much higher in some of the migrant villages located on the villages located on Raipur-Rayagada railway stretch in the districts of Bolangir and Kalahandi in Orissa.

Emergence of Residential Care Centre (RCC)

In 2001, during a district level workshop on migration, issues pertaining to migration and destitution of people, especially women and children, were discussed on length. The former district collector of Bolangir and the district project director of DPEP took the issue seriously and requested the NGOs and civil society organisations to devise a comprehensive strategy to bring back migrant children into the fold of school education.

It was then; an innovative concept called Residential Care Centre (RCC) was formulated. The basic objective of the RCC was to accommodate migrant childrens during the migration seasons of 6-8 months in a residential care centre attached to a primary school. It was decided that the migrant family members would be influenced and mobilized to leave the children back in the village so that they can continue their school education with government support. It was felt that by preventing the children from going to Hyderabad, their education could be continued and that in the long run this would help reduce the number of children becoming child labour.

The DPEP in collaboration with a local NGO began establishing community-managed education centers on an experimental basis. As many as 20 centres were opened in the migration-prone blocks of Turekela, Bongamunda, Khaprakhol, Belpada and Muribahal. All the 20 experimental Residential Care Centres, initiated by CADMB, have been functioning since 14th November 2001. The responses from the migrant parents have been overwhelming with around 2,000 children (both boys and girls) staying at the centres.

Over the years, because of its success, there was an increase in the number of such centres in Bolangir, 72 in 2002, 92 in 2003 and by 2004 other INGO’s started supporting RCCs in some of the high migration induced villages. Taking forward the initiative, the DPEP Orissa has started expanding the RCC to two more districts in Bargarh and Nupaada and has opened up 232 RCCs. With 8000 children studying at the centres, RCC is now considered as a good model for migrant childrens education.

However, there are a number of issues, both at the ground and policy level, that need critical reflection. Some of the issues such as, enhancement of budgetary provision for food, lodging, supervision, remain to be addressed by the government. The VECs need to be made more effective in owning and managing the RCCs. Efforts need to be made to enhance the participation of NGOs and CBOs so that they can add value in monitoring and providing support. Lastly, it is the teachers who need strong motivation, encouragement and support for running the RCCS.

Worksite schools in Andhrapradesh:

Despite a number of RCCs functioning in Bolangir, influx of children with their families to Hyderabad continued. Hyderabad accommodates all the migrant families from western Orissa and Bolangir had some share in the migrant population. In 2002, I was undertaken a mapping of the brick kilns in Rangareddy and Medhak district of Andhrapradesh. The study revealed startling and bare facts about the migrant labourers, their lives in the brick kiln, the plight of the women and children and the deplorable and exploitative working conditions.

Perturbed by the distress situation in the brick kilns, the INGO has initiated dialogue with the brick kiln owners, the intermediary labour contractors, APRLP( Andhra Pradesh Rural Livelihood Project), AP Civil supply department and the erstwhile DPEP for a collective response on the issue.

An immediate need was to bring the working children back to school and through the school as an entry point familiarize more about the condition and situation of brick kiln, document the human rights issues and help the workers into unions. Some educated young people from Bolangir willing to travel to Hyderabad to work as teacher cum community worker were engaged. It was important to have teachers from Bolangir because of their expertise of local language and knowledge of Oriya teaching. The teachers were provided with training in Bolangir and Hyderabad on a wide range of subjects starting from the socio-economic profile of migrant labour, poverty and hunger issues of migrant families, Human rights, labour rights and basic teaching skills in bridge course with support from DPEP and MVF. The local DPEP in Bolangir provided Oriya text books for the schools and assured support for mainstreaming the children back to their mother schools upon return.

The stage was set; the first batch of 10 schools in the brick kiln started functioning during the beginning of 2002. The teachers, 12 of them who too had migrated from Bolangir initiated a quick survey and identified 1768 children in Patancheru, Qutubulapur, Jinnaram, Dindigul in Rangareddy and Medhak district. Schools were started in makeshift and temporary sheds. While, 760 children were mobilized to join the schools, only around 500 children could be mainstreamed in the respective villages when the migrants returned home.

The learning from these experiments was quite interesting and educative. While, less than 50% of the identified children were brought back to the schools, a further drop of 35% of children in mainstreaming in Orissa was noticed. The reasons are complex and multiple. Some of the key factors were - there was not enough space for running the schools; a number of childrens who had received advance from the labour contractors were not allowed to attend school; the number of trained oriya teachers were less. And the dropout rate was more during the fag end of the work season when workers use all their strength to finish the work to return home. And lastly, , teachers were at times forced to talk about issues pertaining to human rights violations thus inviting the ire of the brick kiln owners in the process.

Nevertheless, the learning atmosphere in the brick kilns was quite stimulating. Children hailed from varied caste, caste and regions (different villages and district) together showing immense interest to learn both school curriculum and innovative learning. The process was also quite empowering with the brick kiln labour community actively preventing their children from working as child labour.

The first inter-State meeting in 2002 attended by government officials of Orissa, AP was a great success from the view point of charting out a wide range of collaborative steps to deliver education in the brick kilns. The meeting went a long way towards sentitising both government officials of both states (the sources and the destination) on the plight of migrant labourers, with most agreeing to work on common minimum issues like education with full support from both parties.

As a result of the inter-State meeting, the SSA of AP has agreed to provide space in the neighbouring primary schools for running oriya classes, extend mid day meals for the migrant children and review the education programme by the MEO, Sarpanch of the concerned panchayat and doing a quick feasibility for running mini-Anganwadi centres for the pre school kids and pregnant women workers. A commitment was enlisted from the SSA Orissa who agreed to support the salary cost of the migrant teachers, send required number of text books for the children and help the children join higher classes when they return home.

In the subsequent seasons, we have intensified efforts to strengthen the schools. More number of centres were opened to cover as many as children as was possible. There was a remarkable improvement in recruiting teacher from 10 to 50 and the number of centres went up from 10 to 40. Similarly the number of children attending the centres went up from 600 to 2500. In the same vein, mainstreaming in Orissa also significantly rose from 400 to 1500. Government officials from both states met regularly to strengthen the collaboration between civil society organisations and the government. The government of Andhrapradesh replicated the model for migrant children in Tamilnadu, Karnataka and the government of West Bengal took the learning to Bardhwan district to work with migrants.

It is common knowledge that faster economic growth, informalisation, and mobility of labour have been great concerns for policy makers and planners. Urban areas are increasingly attracting huge work forces from rural areas. However, there has been no decrease in the distress and suffering faced by entire migrant families because of lack of access to social security, education and welfare measures from the government. This is high time the government paid enough attention to its commitment to UEE and the Constitutional amendment of 2005 making education as fundamental rights.

While posting this article, a resources centre on migration ( MiRC) Migration Information and Resources Centre has been set up in Bhubaneswar, Orissa to further the work on migration and education, labour rights, research & policy advocacy initiatives in Orissa and the migration destinations states. I have already had meeting with the Ministry of labour and education department of Orissa, AP, Tamilnadu and consultation with ILO Tamilnadu, meeting with SSA, unicef and local NGOs in Tamilnadu to work with the Orissa migrant workers.

Migration of Bondas from Malkangiri on the rise

Migration of children from the Bonda villages has been on a constant rise for the last many years for the lack of proper development in the region, according to Dambarudhar Sisa, Director, Bonda Samaj Lok Sangathan of Mudulipada in Malkangiri district.While there were at least 600 children in the age group of 12-18 working in different hotels and market places in and around Malkangiri district alone, more children and youth migrated regularly to far-off places like Hyderabad and Bangalore in search of their livelihood, he alleged.

Developmental process that was aimed at bringing changes in the lives of Bonda community had utterly failed even after special programmes were made by launching Bonda Development Agency at Mudulipada since 1979.It was always an imposition of external inputs on the lives of the Bondas rather than a support to the inherent strength, quality and skills of the people in the community, he added.

Highlighting the need to consider the high level of migration and spreading of Bondas all across the district rather than being confined to specific boundaries, he said while the Census report had put the population of Bondas at only 6001, staying in 32 villages of the Upper Bonda Ghat region, it is less than 20,000 if the number of Bondas lived outside the region was taken into account.There were at least 64 villages in the district where Bondas struggled for living their lives.There was no difference between the Bondas living in the upper Bonda Ghat or the lower part of it.All of them shared similar cultural and social identity apart from living in an almost equal level of poverty, he said.However, while the government had considered only the Bondas living in the upper Ghat region under its development initiatives, it had failed to contain the massive amount of migration for the lack of irrigation facility on the hills .On the other hand the Bondas who lived in lower Bonda Hills continued to suffer for the absence of any special schemes and benefits from the government, hesaid.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/08/18/stories/2009081850950200.htm

Sordid tale of migration continues to haunt State

Pradeep Baisakh

The sordid tale migrant labourers who leave their villages in order for better jobs continue narrate a grim situation that the State is facing. Kabi Khila is back in his village from Baleri district of Karnataka where he was taken by a labour agent to do manual work. But he is no more a normal person now; he has lost his mental balance. Colleagues from his village Paikphulbeda under Dasmantpur block of Koraput district, who also had migrated to the same place, say that Kabi was beaten and tortured by his employers, Manu Patra and Benu Patra of SNC agency in Karnataka leading to this situation.

Nearly 13 people from the village were taken to the place and trapped there since June 2007. They were only released after reports were published by The Pioneer in November 2007. "We were made to work for hours at a stretch in the Karnataka Power Corporation, were always abused in filthy languages and were also intermittently beaten up by the Patra brothers, mainly Manu Patra," informed Raghu Gadva, Alu Gadva and Maheswar Syrya of the village who managed to return home.

In Baringpali village of Nandapur bock of Koraput, six adolescent girls and seven lads were taken by the labour agent Prasanna Nayak to Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh in November 2007 to work on a railway track there. Not only were they paid wages less than the promised amount, a girl was slapped by the supervisor in the workplace.

In Khinimunga village of Nandapur block, one Kaliomoni Hontal died of diarrhoea in December, immediately after returning from Visakhapatnam of Andhra Pradesh where she had gone to work. Still, a good number of people were ready to leave for Andhra Pradesh in January, after the NREGS work was stopped in their village.

The matter was brought under the notice of the Collector Balakrushna Sahu who ordered the BDO to resume work so that the villagers did not leave the village for work. When asked about the reason behind leaving for other States, despite being aware of the risk involved, the labourers replied that insufficient or no work within the State forced them to leave their villages.

Despite tall claims of the State Government about its performance in the implementation of the NREGS, it has not been able to bring down the level of distressed migration. In the Barigipali village only one NREGS work of road construction came to the village in March 2007, which fetched barely 11 days of work to some people.

Similarly, in the Paikphulbeda not much work was allotted under the scheme that could meet the demand of work in the village. All these labourers said that if they were given 100 days of work in the village at the rate of Rs 70 per day, they would certainly not go out to work. Official statistics from Nandapur block of the district suggested that there are 25,550 households in the block, for which an amount of Rs 23 crores is required to provide 100 days of work to all the household in a year, but in the last fiscal year only Rs 3.73 rupees was sanctioned and Rs 1.99 crores were utilised. This shows that people have no option but to migrate if this is the state of implementation of NREGS.

More migrations, new destinations

P. Sainath

“This is the busiest ‘labour-travel’ railway station in Orissa,” says R.C. Behera, smiling. He is Station Manager at Berhampur, Ganjam, from where about 7,000 passengers travel out each day on average. Around 5,500 of those are ‘unreserved’ travellers - overwhelmingly labourers migrating for work in Surat and Mumbai.

Most of those aboard the Ahmedabad-Puri Express are normally bound for Surat. There are at least 25,000 headed for that city each month. Which means that in ‘normal’ times, there could be three lakh passengers out of this station headed that way each year. And that’s with only five trains weekly to Surat. Locals have long demanded a seven-day service.

That might not happen just now. The recession in the West has hit several textile units they work in as powerloom operators in Surat. It has also fractured the diamond industry there which employs a smaller percentage of Oriya workers. Large numbers have come back and the Ahmedabad-Puri Express empties itself at Berhampur, Ganjam’s main station. The “Sethu” project of the NGO Aruna which works “to bridge migrants from Ganjam and their homes” finds that the “Surat shock” is having a big fallout. “There are always lots of people coming and going at any time,” says Lokanath Misra of Aruna. “But the number at home at this point is way above normal. We estimate some 50,000 are back who might find it difficult to return to the old employment.”

The same project has surveyed Oriya workers in Surat and found “more than six lakhs of them living in 92 slums in that city. Of these, over four lakhs are from Ganjam.” As elsewhere, one of the problems accompanying the migrants home is HIV Aids, something the NGO Aruna focuses on.

This been a high-migration district from British times, particularly after a great famine in the 1860s, and Ganjam’s migrant workers can be found at countless towns within India. But for two decades, the bulk of its labour force has gone to Surat. “It worked for our people,” laughs Simachal Goud in Kamagada village of Aska block. The village has about 500 households and an estimated 650 migrants. “In Surat, unlike if we went down south, no education is required. In Surat we can make Rs. 250 a day.” There is a tendency amongst many workers to slightly exaggerate their earnings in Gujarat. Not so much to impress us, says one local, as “to set their dowry rates higher. So Rs. 250 could mean Rs. 200.” Yet, even the illiterate amongst them managed Rs. 170-180 a day. “Where can we get anything like that in Ganjam?” they ask.
This worry now grips the district. How will it absorb tens of thousands of these workers if they give up on Surat? District Collector V. Karthikeya Pandian, under whom Ganjam topped Orissa as the best performing district in the NREGS, recognises the seriousness of the problem. “Skilled labourers won’t be easy to absorb,” he told The Hindu. Surely not in the NREGS, though that has embraced 1.5 lakh of the district’s 5 lakh families. In the villages, they agree with the Collector. “Not more than ten or 15 per cent of those coming back can return to agriculture,” says Simachal Goud. “After years of working textiles or the gem industry for years, you simply cannot do that kind of work anymore.”

The Collector hopes the upcoming Port expansion and Indo-Russian Titanium projects will help absorb many skilled workers. He however sees the mismatch in scale and numbers. The returning migrants are too many. He is hopeful, though, of increased investment in agriculture since the returnees have some money and do buy land.

The return of large groups has other effects, too. Group clashes over long dormant feuds has been one of these. A rise in some kinds of crime is another. Family disputes, alcoholism and other tensions are on the rise. And people have returned to a dismal job scenario. As Hindu correspondent Shib Kumar Das points out: “these are still on a low burn, thanks to the elections which kept everybody employed for two months. With those over, worse might follow. “

There might, of course, be new destinations. “You could find lots more of us going to other cities and towns in other states,” says Achyutananda Gouda in Lathipada village. “Many already do. This trend will rise.” He and his friends rattle off the names of at least 20 other cities outside of Gujarat that people from their village already go to. On Surat, Gouda says “It won’t die out. People will still try their luck there, but it will decline.” A few believe some recovery is possible if and when government steps in to bail out the export-linked units.

A surprise destination often discussed here is -- Kerala. But why Kerala? “Because,” says a few who have been there, “there are jobs there those people won’t do. The minimum we’d get is Rs. 150 a day. There the work would be for eight hours with a lunch recess unlike Surat’s 12-hour shift without a break. You can also make the roughly the same amounts (i.e. Rs. 170-200) because you will surely get two hours of overtime. There’s no such thing in Surat. In Kerala, there are proper timings and a day off, the labour laws are strictly enforced (because the unions are strong). In Surat we are treated like dirt.”

The money difference is fast shrinking, says Dukhi Shyam in Lathipada, who has operated looms in Surat for 14 years. “Now each of us handles six looms where earlier we managed four. That too is a way of cutting our wages.”

Many ‘returnees’ do not like to see themselves as grounded at home base even if they suspect they are. Many speak of returning to Surat “in some months” and might well try their luck. Others are looking to newer venues. As one old cynic put it in Lathipada. “What is there to stay for? In this region you migrate when you’re weaned off breast milk.” And return, his neighbour chips in, “when the hair on your head, if you have any left, is grey.”

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu

Elections-Who cares for the migrant?

Umi Daniel

The elections are round the corner and another opportunity for the people of India to show their might through their votes. This is the time when poor and marginalized people of this country feel the real and equal sense of citizenship to choose their representative and parties who are going rule them for another five years.

The migrant from western Orissa or seasonal migrant from any of the poorest regions includes dalits, tribal and other marginalized communities of India will be again denied of their citizenship rights to cast their valuable votes for the new government who will be carrying out programme and policies for their development. In a country where distress migration is driving people out to alien destinations, will they be ever participating in any form of the democratic governance process? For instance, the two lakh migrant from western Orissa and more than four lakh Ganjam migrant will be completely away from the election in their state and ignored about the political situations unfolding in their native land. When the migrants come home during June, the election results will be out and they will be imposed a leader to whom they have never elected or preferred. Who is responsible for this, the poverty which drives them out or the policy which never empowered them to vote? Successive governments have never bothered about these people during important events such as Panchayat, assembly, union elections, census, BPL surveys or simply participating in gram Sabha. Moreover, the government have never even tried to make legislation as to how these lesser know citizens will participate in the democratic processes.

I fee, this is high time that the election commission, political parties, civil society and the policy makers think about this and facilitate a meaningful process for participation of migrants in the democratic governance process like elections and other important events.

Social Security Bill 2008 and Migrant workers

Umi Daniel

After almost a decade, Unorganised Workers Social Security Bill seeking to provide social security to workers in the vast unorganized sector was finally passed by Parliament. The Bill seeks to make a beginning in providing social security to some sections of the vast 94% of the total 45.9 crore working population of the country who have remained outside the purview of the facilities.

The scheme relates to provide life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits; old age protection; and any other benefits as may be determined by the Central Government. it provides setting up of a National Social Security Advisory Board which has been re-named as National Social Security Board with the Union labour minister as its chairperson.

The bill has a provision for registering all the 400 million unorganized workers engaged in various informal sectors and will be provided with a unique national identification number. As per the provision, along with the worker(except BPL families) the employer, Union government and respective state government will contribute 1 rupee a day to be used for the social security benefit for the workers. This means, every day around 1600 million rupees will be collected and will be deposited with some designated banks or insurance agency. Annually the scheme aspires to collect 584,000 million rupees which may be used for the social security coverage of 400 odd million workers.

In relation to the coverage of migrant workers; administering the Act will be a massive and complex task for the government to first register and keep track of each of the migrant workers who will be earning their wages from different location and different employees. By now, it is evident that, the building and construction workers Act is struggling hard to register the migrant workers to avail the existing social security benefit under its purview, the proposed Un-organized workers bill will face daunting task to bring the migrant workers under its coverage and provide meaningful social security benefits.

Already there are concerns and worry has been expressed by large number of labour unions working with agriculture workers, forest workers, domestic and other marginalized workers about its coverage and benefit. Similarly, the large chunk of migrant workers who are into undefined sectors and field may face difficulty in accessing the benefit of the scheme.

Orissa Labour Welfare Board to help Construction workers

Umi Daniel

The Government of India in the Ministry of Labour and Employment have enacted the Building and Other Construction Workers( Regulation of Employment and Condition of Service) Act, 1996 with the objective of regulating the Employment and condition of Service of the Building and other construction workers and to provide their safety, health and welfare measures.

The Government of Orissa with a view to enforce the provision of the building and Other Construction Workers Regulation of Employment and Condition of Service) Act, 1996 have formulated rules namely the Orissa Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of employment and Condition of Service) Rules, 2002 and this has been published in the Orissa Gazette vide Government Notification No.9174-LE dt. 02.08.2002.

As per the Act, informal workers working in various governments, private sector, individual housing and other construction work will greatly benefit from setting up welfare boards at the state level and creation of corpus by getting 1% cess from the total cost of construction work going on in Orissa.

Orissa has already lost a huge amount of fund as there was delay in formulating the rules to collect cess from the huge infrastructure and construction work going on a big scale in various parts. As per a rough estimate more than 20,000 crores of construction work is going on in Orissa and since last 10 years, orissa would have lost 1000 crores as cess for its labour welfare board. It would have alone collected more than 500 crores from the national highway authority which was in operation in Orissa. The amount could have been used for the welfare of thousands of workers engaged in construction work.

Now since the Government of Orissa has formulated the rules and going to set up the State Labour welfare board with adequate staffing, the migrant workers who are mostly engaged in the construction work will get various social security benefits under its schemes. However, all the workers need to be registered at the labour office with necessary identification testimonies.

Following are some of the benefit which the registered labourers may be granted by the State Welfare Board.

Accident benefit,
Pension to the beneficiary on completion of 60 years of age,
family pension, invalid pension,
Death relief/funeral Assistance,
Loan and advances for construction of houses
Group insurance
Financial assistance for the education of the children of the beneficiaries
Medical expenses for treatment of major ailments of beneficiaries and the dependents
Maternity benefit to the female beneficiaries
Marriage benefits
Tool advances
Financial assistance for coaching in specialized subjects
Grant of loan or subsidy to a local Authority in any scheme connected with the welfare of the building/construction workers

The State Welfare board will formulate its plan for implementation of various labour welfare and social security schemes.

It is imperative that, the government of Orissa should take proactive role in setting the State Welfare Board to initiate collection of 1% cess to be kept in the corpus to be used for the migrant and unorganized workers engaged in the construction work. most importantly, the registration of workers need to be done on a war footing with awareness generation with the workers and full participation of the labour unions and civil society organisations.

Ref: Govt of Orissa L&E Dept.

Migrant workers of Western Orissa-struggle for survival

Umi Daniel

Unorganized sector commands 60.45 % share in the net domestic product of the country but is ‘clearly’ away from the ambit of state regulation and protection.
Migrant Brick kiln workers who are considered as semi skilled workers are one of most exploited, un-organised and un-regulated labour force in India. Some studies after providing the necessary caveat mentions that there are around 150,000 brick kilns operating throughout India employing around 2 million workers (the figures may be much higher then what has been indicated) . The National Commission on Rural Labour (1991) estimates more than 10 million circular migrants in the rural areas.

Every year, the brick kilns of Andhra Pradesh employ thousands of circular migrant laborers from western parts of Orissa particularly from Nuapada, Bolangir, Bargarh and Sambalpur districts. As per an estimate, every year more than 200,000 people are recruited by the unscrupulous labour agent and transported to Andhrapradesh to work in brick kilns. All these recruits are illegally trafficked to Hyderabad defying a number of labour and penal laws of the State. These labourer migrate in semi-bonded conditions due to a total lack of sustainable livelihood options in their native soil after the monsoons have yielded their meager fruits. This is further compounded because of exploitative practices of moneylenders who take advantage of this situation and charge high rates of interest. This never ending cycle of debt forces the labourers to accept the meager advances given by the Sardars (middlemen) in conveyance with the brick-kilns owners operate in Hyderabad. As per an estimate more than 40-50 crores of money reach western Orissa through the brick kiln owners as advanced for recruitment of labourers. These advances are given with the condition that the labourers blindly fulfill their obligation with the Sardar by going to the pre-determined destinations located in Andhra Pradesh.

Back in the brick-kilns in AP, these labourers work in harsh living conditions. Being outside the realm of the welfare economics of state, they do not have access to the basic minimum facilities of food, health care, education and minimum wage at the work sites. All members of the family work in the kiln in as part of the labour unit locally called Pathuria. Each labour unit consists of two adult members and one child. The children constitute 20% of the workforce and bulks of the children’s are school dropouts and employed in the brick kiln as non-paid worker.

Throughout six months of their stay, the staple food of the migrant family is Kanki (broken rice normally used in AP as poultry feed). This is because each of the labour unit gets around Rs. 250 as weekly ration for a family of 4-5 members and unable to buy rice. In such situation, expecting mothers, children and the infant's find themselves at the receiving end of a diet that is pathetically low in nutritive quality and quantity. Majority of the children suffers from malnutrition and vitamin deficiency which sometimes leading to the loss of life. Cases of non-payment of wages, sexual abuse of women, labour harassment, child and forced labour are a regular feature in the brick kilns which hardly get noticed and addressed by the host state.

Majority of the brick kilns are located in the suburbs of Hyderabad and adjoining districts of Rangaredy, Medhak, Hyderabad and Nalgonda. Most of it is run illegally and doesn’t confirm to the government laws. One single brick kiln recruits around 60-80 workers and produces around 20-30 lakh bricks per year.. The annual financial gains of all these brick kilns run into crores and a conservative estimate put it at 750 crores. Nevertheless, despite of the boom in the construction sector, there is no any significant increase or change in the prevailing wage and living conditions of the workers. Currently for each of moulded sun dried bricks the worker is paid 10 paise which is further shared between three people at little more than 3 paise per bricks. In six month of time, each of the brick kiln workers unit called Pathuria( three people constitute a unit) make around 2,50,000 bricks and get a meager Rs 25,000 at 10 paise per bricks as wages. The piece work for molded bricks in Andhra Pradesh is scheduled at 1 rupee per bricks, this means the worker should be receiving Rs. 1000 for making of 1000 molded and sun backed bricks. The current market rate of bricks in the real state maket in AP is Rs.3000 for 1000 bricks and the Brick kiln owner gets around Rs.7,50,000 for 2,50,000 kilned bricks. As per an assessment, if the wage rate in AP is slightly raised to 50 paisa from the current 10 paise per bricks, the migrant worker would earn around Rs.125,000 per Pathuria which I think is five fold increase of their wages. While the brick kiln as an industry is growing hastily in the metro cities and generating business of more than 1000 crores, the enhanced income will certainly give an economic advantage for the workers for remitting some money back to their villages when they return. But unfortunately, none of the migrant earns any substantial amount which can be remitted back to their homes.

The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 was passed in the parliament to regulate and enforce laws on the movement of labourers from one state to another. The Act has a number of non negotiable provisions directed to the State governments, principle employee and the middleman to take certain measures to protect and safeguard the basic rights of migrant labourers both at sources and destination. However, majority of the State, principal employee and the labour agents are fervently violating the labour law and defying the implementation and enforcement of the ISMW Act.

It is quite worrying to note that, despite the promise of 100 days employment under NREGA, exodus of people continuing unabated from the western Orissa to the brick kilns. This is primarily because of sheer influence and allurement from the Sardars for a hefty monetary advance contributing to the complex debt cycle which force people to choose the path of migration. Also, the historical failure of the government in implementation of antipoverty, employment and social security measures for the poor is found to be a key factor for encouraging migration. Since last couple of years, the western Orissa regions has been in the limelight for its poverty and hunger and has attracted a number of development projects from both Central Government and State machineries. Some of the populist programmes and projects like KBK central assistance, Western Orissa Development Council, WORLP (Western Orissa Rural Livelihood Project) BRGF (Backward Region Grant Fund) numerous Integrated Watershed Management projects and bountiful of antipoverty schemes have failed to provide meaningful and alternative livelihood support to the most marginalized and substantially ignored addressing migration as a priority, approach and policy under its programme and activities.

Since time memorial, mobility of human civilization from one region to another has been based on two primary factors. First being the “pull” which is primarily a search for improved livelihood prospects, basic services, social and economic wellbeing, and the later being a host of “push” factors such as caste discrimination, displacement due to big projects, natural calamities and conflicts. In such human exodus, it is imperative that migrant’s rights, social security entitlement and social protection policies and schemes should be enforced unambiguously. It is high time that, the central government should review the ISMWA-1979 and bring-in progressive and protective legislation for the migrant workers. The government should streamline and fine-tune various anti-poverty programmes, welfare and employment programme with clear mandate, priority and implementation to stop distress migration. The much waited Social Security Bill for the Unorganized Sector Workers is coming up with an ambiguous social security guarantee under its provision may bring some respite to the exploitative wage system, worsening working condition and declining labour rights.


The writer is a development activist hail from Koraput currently working as Head Migration theme in Aide et Action South Asia. In the recent past he has extensively worked in Bolangir and later initiated some excellent work in the brick kilns of Hyderabad for ensuring state supported education for the brick kiln working children, advocacy with the government of AP for workers rights and rescuing hundreds of distressed and abused bonded laborers from brick kilns.

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