Concerned over increasing incidences of labour exploitation in the district, local women here have come forward to discuss the issue in the public and find out the solution.
The Telkoi-based social organisation, Women’s Organisation in Rural Development (Word), with the active support of Germany’s philanthropic organisation, Andheri Hilfe Bonn, organised a district-level one-day workshop on labour migration at Keonjhar on Wednesday.
Over a hundred women including members of Panchayat Samiti, women self-help groups (SHGs) and representatives of various Government offices attended. The participants expressed their views on how the labourers can be encouraged not to migrate to outside of the State and earn their living taking advantage of different Government schemes.
The workshop viewed that thousands of labourers have been exploited by some fraud contractors in Keonjhar. lured by the contractors, the labourers are migrating to others States and being exploited.
The Panchayat Samiti representatives requested Keonjhar ADM Sanjay Kishore Sahoo to conduct a survey at block-level and register names of unorganised labourers intending to go outside to earn a living. They demanded that the exploited labourers be included in various Government-sponsored employment programmes and the agents be punished sternly.
DCP Debangana Barik, OlM Arun Kumar Sahoo, PD DRDA Ranjan Kishore Behera and BlO Binay Kishore Dash spoke on the occassion.