Despite the Odisha Government's claim of having launched several welfare schemes for poor people, an estimate by the State labour Department has revealed that a total of 4,008 children of 12 districts of the State are working as labourers in different brick kilns outside the State. The State labour Commissioner has instructed the Collectors of the 12 districts to rescue the children working in different brick kilns of Telangana State.
Through his letter on February 15, the labour Commissioner has stated that a total of 4,008 child labourers are working in different brick kilns. Out of this number, the highest number of child labourers are from Balangir district (2,967) followed by Nuapada with 635 child labourers.
In Nuapada district, out of 635 children, the highest number has migrated from Komna block (214), followed by Sinapali (126), Boden (94), Khariar block (85) and Nuapada (13). All these children are working in the brick kilns of Telengana. Apart from those, a total of 37 children of Nuapada have migrated to some other districts of Odisha. The whereabouts of another 68 children out of the 635 are yet to be ascertained.
The Nuapada district administration has formed a rescue team consisting of the District Programme Coordinator of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the District labour Officer, NGO lokadrustri, the Sarpanch of lakhna, the CRCC of Makhapadar Cluster of schools and SMC member of Khairbhadi. The team will move to Telangana to rescue the child labourers.
It is interesting to note that a number of Rehabilitation Centres for the care of children of migrating parents are running in the district, but instead of staying there the children are migrating with their parents.
The other districts form where the child labourers have migrated to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are Kalahandi with 110 children, Bargarh (120), Nabarangpur (30), Angul (4), Sundargarh (18), Sambalpur (40), Subarnapur (60), Jharsuguda (8), Baudh (15) and Raigada (4).