Breaking bonds of misery

After years of hardship, migrant labourers from Odisha get a new lease of life

Satya Sunder Barik, The Hindu 

Forty-year-old Buta Rana from Induguda village of Odisha’s Rayagada district was rescued as a bonded labourerfrom Tamil Nadu in 2011. However, he hasn’t migrated outside the State in search of work since.  

It wasn’t as if the rehabilitation assistance of Rs. 20,000 he received in 2012- 2013 under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, was enough to live on in his village for the rest of his life. Buta and 12 otherformer bonded labourers from five families in the village pooled their assistance money and bought four acres of land in 2012-2013. They have been able to meet their food needs from the land since the past three years, besides making some additional income.

Rehabilitation assistance At Muribahal block of Balangir district, 37-year-old Uttar Bagarti and his three family members have forgotten the agonising days at a brick kiln in Tamil Nadu. After their repatriation to Odisha in 2011, they used their rehabilitation assistance as seed investment. They now grow paddy, sunflowers and vegetables in the village and have no reason to migrate to other States anymore.

Buta and Uttar’s stories are not just gloomy tales of migrant labourers from Odisha ending up as bonded labourers. Having learnt a lesson from their torturous experiences, many bonded labourers have started earning livelihoods in their own villages. Every year, about three lakh migrant labourers, including minors, move from the interiors of Odisha to other States in search of work. Between 2010 and 2015, 1,208 labourers, including 500 women and 100 children, were legally freed as bonded labourers from brick kilns in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The State governments then repatriated them to Odisha.

Rukmana Deep, a migrant labourerfrom Badipali village at Bijepur block of Bargarh district, had migrated to Andhra Pradesh to work at a brick kiln in order to repay his hospital bills to the tune of Rs. 20,000. However, his family and he were forced to work in confinement before they were finally rescued by the police and activists in 2012. After he returned home, Rukmana decided to make a living in his native village. He used his financial assistance to invest in both agriculture and weaving. Today, his income from weaving alone has increased to nearly Rs. 20,000 per month. One of his two daughters, also a former bonded labourer, is pursuing higher education at a local college. Rukmana also leads the forum of bonded labourers at Bargarh “There’s nothing wrong in migrating in search for a job. The State government must play the role of a facilitatorto prevent its citizens from being tortured in other States,” said Rukmana.

Activist in action Successful rehabilitation of bonded labourers has been possible thanks to activists helping them access various government schemes including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Indira Awas Yojna, Biju Pucca GharYojana, and the Public Distribution System. “We have been focusing on land-based rehabilitation. Migrant labourers aren’t shy about working in the fields. What they lack is investment. We try to help them access government welfare programmes,” said Umi Daniel, the head Migration information and Resource Centre (MiRC), Aide et Action South Asia, a non-government organisation.

Courtesy: 5/30/2017 Breaking bonds of misery ­ NATIONAL ­ The Hindu http://www.thehindu.com/todays­paper/tp­national/breaking­bonds­of­misery/article18596928.ece 5/9

Missing tribal migrant worker returns home - recounts ordeal

Umi Daniel 

Bala Santa, aged 42 year, father Sanya Santa a kondh  belongs to village Padeikund of Asana Gram Panchayat of Kundra Block of Koraput district.  Santa is a  vulnerable poor and has been enrolled as a Antodaya beneficiary and belongs to PVTG( Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group). Due to poverty and indebtedness, Bala Santa and his minor son Muna Santa were trapped by a local labour contractor named Banamali from Jaba padar village in Kundra who  took the father and son to Palakkad in Kerala with a promise of paying an amount of  Rs. 8000 as monthly wage. Both Father and son along with  some labourers left for  Pallakad, Kerala during June 2016. 

After a month of working in the farm in Palakkad, Kerala, Bala Santa was very upset about his wage which was less than that was promised by the middle man. He told his son to go back home with whatever money they had then. But the son said, -they are here to work for 6 months and only after that they will be allowed to leave. However,  Bala Santa was restless and  said he will be returning  home alone. Then one evening with  Rs. 250 in his pocket,  Bala Santa left for the local railway station to board the train to his village -Kundra. He asked some people about the train that goes to Jeypore and finally boarded a train which took him to Jaipur city in Rajasthan. After working for 6 months in the farm land, Muna finally left for Kundra with a meager earning of Rs. 17000 and found that his father had not  returned home and had gone somewhere else instead.  The family was utterly distressed on not being able to find any information regarding the whereabouts of Bala Santa. He was now a missing person and no one knew where he was. 

After six months of his departure from Kerala, on 19^th of February 2017, Narayan Saravor Police in Kutch in Gujrat contacted the Kundra Police in Koraput informing that a man named  Bala Santa  claiming to be from Asana Gram Panchayat of Kundra has been caught by BSF on the India-Pakistan internal border in Kutch and has been  handed over to the police. The police found no criminal antecedence in the case, and repeatedly for 15 days followed up with the Kundra Police IIC to help to take the person back. The local media has also reported the case as well. After getting the news, the family members and the villagers have given a written application to the Sub-collector of Jeypore, Tehsildar, Superintendent of Police but as per the victims’ family, no one came for the rescue of the Bala Santa. Moreover, the collector even didn’t allowed the family to have an audience to listen to their grievances says Manu Santa and son of the victim.

Since no one helped the in the case, the victims family approached PRAGATI, the NGO in Koraput who in turn informed the Migration information & Resource centre (MIRC) Aide et Action, Bhubaneswar to help in locate and repatriation of the victim from Gujrat. MiRC, with the help of Setu-Urban and NGO based at Bhuj in Gujrat established contacted the Gujrat police and came to know that the victim has been sent to the judicial custody and lodged in Palara Jail in Kutch district. One of the staff of MiRC, Aide et Action and the son of Bala Santa traveled to Gujrat. After reaching Bhuj, to their surprise found Bala Santa being admitted in a mental hospital in Bhuj due to some abnormal behavior found when he was produced before the SDJM, Dayapar in Kutch district.  Bala Santa was looked terrified, weak and unable to speak anything. However, he could recognize his son and inconsolably cried and requested to take him away and prayed for his repatriate to his village- said Daya Sagar. The rescue team worked hard and with the help of the Gujrat police moved the bail application and finally been able to release the poor Bala Santa in a very awful situation from the mental hospital.  Now he is back in his villages and recounting and recuperating from the trauma and ordeal which he has encountered since last 6 months.

MGNREGA fail to arrest distress migration:

Why the poor tribal and disadvantage people are today resorting to migration in the hilly region of Koraput. In the case of Bala Santa, as per government statistics, he is an Antodaya beneficiary and privileged to be enrolled on priority to access most of the  the government antipoverty programme. Only the wife of Bala is remained at home and his  elder son and his daughter in-law have also migrated to Andhra Pradesh to work in a brick kiln. His family never accessed employment under flagship National rural employment act, MGNREGA. The scheme doesn’t run well in his own Kundra block.  As per the government data for 2016-17, In Kundra block a total of 17,483 Households have got MGNREGA job cards, however,  only 4015 (22%) provided work and oddly only 63 households have provided with 100 days of employment.  On the other hand, the MGNREGA performance in Koraput district is also quite miserable. As per the 2016-17 government data indicate, out of the total 2,92,549 households who were provided job cards under MGNREGA,  93,519 (31%) people accessed MGNREGA  and  as low as 884 ( 0.94%) households have received 100 days of employment. This tells the sorry state of MGNREGA in the district, and due to non availability of rural employment, the tribal and disadvantaged people find migration as a survival strategy. 

Poor implementation of inter-state migrant workers Act of 1979:

As per the government information, in the year 2011, while 91371 registered as inter-state migrant, it has reached 135000 in 2014 in Odisha as a whole. During 2011, 215 people registered as interstate migrant workers in Koraput district and it went up to 295 during 2014 and 13 labour contractors were officially given license under inter-state migrant workers Act of 1979. The registration of workers and issuance of license to the labour contractor is hugely under reported. Since, the district borders with two states namely, Andhra Pradesh on the south and Chhattisgarh in the north and since the poverty and rural unemployment is significantly higher in Koraput district, tribal in these districts are being recruited as migrant labourers and move to various southern and northern districts as manual wage workers.

Bala Santa’s case is an insight for the government to take enough precaution to arrest distress migration in the district. The illiterate, poor and ill informed tribal are being pushed into distress and migrating for just survival. Rural employment followed by social security, food, livelihood, pension and economic security can very well tackle the vulnerability of people to resort distress migration and suffering. 

Number of migrant labourers from Odisha rise threefold in 10 years

Number of migrant workers from Odisha to other states is rising steadily. Compared to 55,000 workers migrating from Odisha in 2007, 1.46 lakh left the state in 2015, government figures show.

Social activists working for welfare of the migrants said the actual number of people migrating to other states for works would be far more than the government figures because only a miniscule percentage of them get registered.

According to the government figures, 87,000 seasonal migrant workers left Odisha to other states in 2008, which rose to 1.05 lakh in 2012, 1.2 lakh in 2013 and 1.35 lakh in 2014. Maximum migrants were from the Balangir district all these years (45000 in 2015).

Labour minister Prafull Mallik, in a written reply in the assembly, said the government has been undertaking awareness campaign in 11 migration-prone districts (Bargarh, Balangir, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Sonepur, Ganjam, Gajapati, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Rayagada and Khurda).

The government has deployed special police officers to gather intelligence about illegal migration and check them. Since voluntary migration for works is not illegal, migrants are being registered at the panchayat level to ensure they are not exploited, the minister said. The minister, however, said it would be wrong to say that the migrants were going outside the state due to lack of job avenues in the state.

Umi Daniel, who works for welfare of migrants with a voluntary organisation, said the government figures are only small percentage of the actual volume of migration. "Most migrants don't get registered. Various estimates show highest people from Ganjam migrate for work. However, there number is very low in the government data," Daniel said. According to the government figures, only 4966 labourers from Ganjam migrated outside the state for work.

Times of India TNN | Dec 10, 2016, 04.51 PM IST Printed from BHUBANESWAR: