Migrant labourers of Ganam district formed a social body, Prabasi Sramika Suraksha Manch, to fight for their rights on the occasion of the International Migrants Day observed here.
More than 200 migrant labourers assembled at the Ganjam Kala Parishad here and discussed issues related to their rights, recognition, livelihood, living condition, health, children’s education, insurance and social security.
They resented that the district administration has no data base as to how many people are migrating to outside the State to earn livelihood. “Frequent disasters, poor implementations of existing acts and lack of employment opportunities in Ganjam have forced people to migrate to other places for work,” said some labour leaders.
On this occasion, Sudarsan Chhotaray of the National Coalition of Migrant labourers (NCMl), lokanath Misra of ARUNA, journalist Sib Kumar Das, Brundaban Panda of GPSS and Bibhu Prasad Sahu of Youth for Social Development (YSD) joined hands to gather migrants and form the ‘Prabasi Sramika Surakshya Manch’.
Currently, more than 2.5 million migrants from different parts of Odisha working in cities like Surat, Ahmadabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Keral, Kolkata and Delhi. Ganjam supplies highest number of migrants which is more than 6 lakhs.
Major demands made on the occasion include creation of data base and registration of migrant workers at gram panchayat level, insurance coverage, effective implementation of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Condition of Services) Act 1997 and Unorganised workers Social Security Bill, 2008 and provision of better job opportunities for them in Odisha.